Issac Newton was a highly curious scientist who lived from 1643-1727. During Issac’s time, the foundations of modern physics were being laid down. Issac contributed to mathematics, optics, and physics through his revolutionary theories on motion. Issac Newton published three major works regarding motion which became known as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. The First […]
First proposed by the Swedish meteorologist Tor Bergeron in the early 1920s, the Bergeron Process takes place when ice crystals form high in the cloud tops. These small, often microscopic ice crystals attract more water vapor, causing them to increase in size. As the ice crystals increase in size, the vapor pressure drops. This […]
There is absolutely no difference between fog and clouds found high in the air. Fog is simply a cloud that has formed near the surface of the Earth. There are four main types of fog: Radiation fog, advection fog, upslope fog and evaporation fog. Radiation Fog As the ground becomes cooled by the night sky, […]
Condensation is the opposite of evaporation. It takes place when water vapor in the air condenses from a gas, back into a liquid form, and leaves the atmosphere, returning to the surface of the Earth. Usually in order for condensation to take place, the atmosphere must be fully saturated. In other words, the maximum vapor […]
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 […]
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 […]
