GEOB 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Advection, Fluid Parcel, Atmospheric Circulation

• School: UBC
• Department: Geographical Biogeosciences
• Course: GEOB 102
• Professor: Simon Donner

Document Summary

Chapter 2+3: the sun, the seasons, and the atmosphere. Solar mass is converted into energy by fusion of hydrogen atoms. Seasonality refers to the variation in the sun"s altitude and the changing lengths of daylight that occur over the year. Insolation reaches a maximum when the sun is at the sub solar point. June solstice: tropic of cancer countries: Earth revolves in an elliptical orbit around the sun. Cc at north pole if you are in space looking down. The earth rotates in the same direction producing: Even distribution of radiant energy along parallels or lines of latitude (if cloud-free) The earth"s axis is tilted about (cid:884)(cid:885). 5 degrees with respect to the (cid:498)plane of the ecliptic(cid:499) P. o. t. e= the plane described by the earth"s orbit around the sun. Varies over a long period of time (40 000 years) and explains things like the ice age. Earth gets closer to the sun in summer and farther in winter.