The process of water molecules escaping the surface of the Earth and entering the atmosphere is known as evaporation. Evaporation takes place as molecules of water escape from a collective body of water. This can be a puddle, a lake, a stream, or just a droplet of water. As water molecules evaporate, they take with […]
The amount of water gas or vapor in the air varies greatly from location to location. In some areas, such as deserts, the amount of water vapor in the air can be almost zero. In other locations, such as in rain forests and above the oceans, the amount of water vapor in the air can […]
Incoming heat being absorbed by the Earth, and outgoing heat escaping the Earth in the form of radiation are both perfectly balanced. If they were not balanced, then Earth would be getting either progressively warmer or progressively cooler with each passing year. This balance between incoming and outgoing heat is known as Earth’s heat budget. […]
One way that the atmosphere stores heat is in the form of latent heat. With the help of H2O, or water, the Earth’s atmosphere has the ability to store this excess heat. When heat is stored, it is referred to as latent heat. As water evaporates off of the surface of a lake, this stored […]
What happens to that heat once it arrives at a destination depends on a number of factors. These factors include the size of the object receiving the heat, the current temperature of that object, color of the object, and the materials that the object is made out of. As heat reaches its destination it will […]
Before we continue our discussion on how heat affects our environments, let’s explore how heat is transferred from one object to another. There are three natural processes that can be used to transfer heat. These processes are called radiation, conduction, and convection. Radiation All objects radiate energy and heat, even your own body. However, the […]
Scientists divide our home planet into three spheres. Each sphere is categorized according to its physical characteristics. These spheres are the Atmosphere, which is made of all the Earth’s gases; the Lithosphere, which is made up of all the Earth’s physical materials, such as rocks and soil; and the Hydrosphere, which is made up of […]
