GEOG 1300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Solar Wind, Radiant Energy, Aurora
23 Feb 2016
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General idea: incoming solar energy that arrives at the top of the earth"s atmosphere establishes the pattern of energy input that drives earth"s physical systems and which influences our lives daily. This energy input along with the rotation and tilt of the earth on its axis produce daily, seasonal, and annual patterns. The sun is our ultimate energy source for most life processes in our atmosphere. We are infinitely small and infinitely large and that just blows my mind okay now for some earth science. Our solar system came from gas and dust called a nebula that began to condense due to gravity. The sun grew in mass and began to have a larger gravitational pull, and attracted small bits of forming proto-planets--which are our planets. 1 light year (distance light travels in a year) is 9. 5 trillion kilometers. Our galaxy is about 100000 light years across.
