This guide facilitates the understanding of advance geography through basic terms, diagrams and links. It actively summarizes and explains the most difficult components of geography so all that you really need to do is skim through it, saving you hours !
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• Solar energy is generated by the process of nuclear fusion.
• Energy from the Sun travels through space in electromagnetic waves that have both wave and
particle (photon) structures
• Important characteristics of EM waves:
- distance between corresponding points on two successive waves is called the wavelength
- number of waves passing a fixed point per unit of time is the frequency, measured in hertz
(Hz). I Hz is one pulse (wave) per second
- speed at which an electromagnetic wave moves is the speed of light; i.e. 3 x 108 m.s-1, or 30 000
km.s-1
- c = λν - short wavelength = higher frequency
• Temp= average measure of a kinetic energy per molecule of an object
• Heat=The total (sum) kinetic energy of all molecules in an object
• Absolut 0= when molecules have no energy. The total (sum) kinetic energy of all molecules in an
object
• Sensible heat= Heat acquired by an object, through transfer from another object of higher
temperature
• Latent heat= Heat acquired or lost when a body changes to a different physical state
• Climate- persistent weather patterns that are derived from a statistical analysis of at least
30 years of data
•
,x
,EARTH AND SUN RELATIONSHIP
• Plane of the ecliptic- plane that depicts the Earth’s orbit about the Sun
• Perihelion-reached just after the December Solstice, when the Earth is closest to the sun,
147 255 000 km away, on January 3
• Aphelion- reached on July 4, just after the June Solstice, when the Earth is 152 083 000 km away
from the sun
• Austral- has to do with the southern hemisphere
• Boreal- has to do with the northern hemisphere
Furthest closest
• Tilt of earth and earths path cause seasons
• Position of the sun is only one of the factors that controls the amount of energy that reaches the
Earth’s surface, and hence the temperature of the surface
, • Earth only receives one two-billionth of the Sun’s total energy output
• Tropics receive 2½ times more energy than the poles as the insolation is concentrated due to
Earth’s curvature- rays more likely to hit surface at 90 degrees
• Polar gets oblique rays therefore its colder
• Earth receives shortwave radiation from the sun- Gamma rays, X-rays, and UV(8%); Visible
light (47%); and Infrared (45%), (the radiation that warms us)-a large portion of which is
stored in the ground and re-radiated as longwave radiation= low budget at poles, high by
tropics
Diurnal Cycle of Electromagnetic Radiation
• The day/night
1. sunrise, the earth begins intercepting mainly short wavelength energy (0.4 - 0.7 µm) from
the sun
2. Some of the incident short-wavelength energy is absorbed by the Earth
3. re-radiated back into the atmosphere as thermal Infra-Red (IR) long-wavelength radiation
4. Outgoing longwave radiation reaches its highest value during the day when the surface
temperature is highest (highest longwave radiation when surface temp is highest)
• Reflected short-wavelength energy and emitted long-wavelength energy causes an energy
surplus during the day.
• Both incoming and outgoing shortwave radiation become zero after sunset
• Outgoing longwave radiation continues all night
• The Earth is not a perfect Blackbody (one that absorbs all radiation), or Whitebody (one that
reflects all radiation)
• Dangerous, high-energy gamma and x-rays are blocked
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