The Global Weather System

[kevin]

I have some questions for scientists and meteorologists on this board.

(1) How much energy does the earth absorb at various latitudes?
(2) How significant are the various types and abundance of vegitations to the amount of heat a place absorbs?
(3) What are the major players in the global distribution of heat?
(4) Are ocean currents a separate system from the atmospheric systems? If so what kind of interaction exists?

Also, what are the major papers in the field of climatology? Is the subject matter well explored or in need of analysis? What are the major 'questions' remaining about how the earth moderates itself?

[gigabite]

I not sure I fulfill the job prerequisites, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/index.html

[kevin]

lol @ Holiday Inn joke.

Anyone trying to revolutionize the atmospheric sciences care to answer my questions?

[gigabite]

(1) How much energy does the earth absorb at various latitudes?

The amount of energy absorbed by the earth at any latitude is dependent on the earth sun angle, atmospheric moisture, and albedo.

To simplify the proof we will assume that the speed of light is instantaneous, energy is directly related the photons per square meter, and the albedo is zero (no photon reflection.)

The earth sun angle changes from season to season. If the number of photons (a particle of light) that hit any square meter is constant, and the maximum number of photons strike any square meter is when the plane of reference is perpendicular to the line the photons are traveling.

Then the percentage of energy at any latitude - (90* - the latitude - the sun’s latitude) / 90*

Any questions/refutations?

[kevin]

That makes good sense, and should serve as a starting point for discussions of the global weather system. The sun is the input factor for the earth, and it does not evenly distribute the energy. Heat is concentrated in the tropics, and the poles are cold.

There are also differences in heat content based on the angle of the surface, vegetation, whether it is ground or water, and so forth.

I'm not here to go against any position, just to see the basic funamentals of the atmosphere. Thank you for the response.

[gigabite]

Well certainty this is a start about the Sun‘s radiant heat. It is convenient to speak of light in terms of photons, but heat from the Sun is stored in wave energy from electromagnetic radiation .

But this is not the only type of heat received from the sun, because photons are not the only type of particle leaving the sun. When there is a solar flare the substance of a flare consists of among other things carbon. As reactions create light, atoms collide with each other to form other elements that are necessary for the reactions to cycle on. One of these cycles is called the carbon cycle. This the result of hydrogen atoms colliding with each other to form carbon which builds up into nitrogen then oxygen and then it disintegrates into carbon and helium. Helium is the fuel the Sun uses. Carbon is a waste product. Some of it is recycled some of it is ejected.

During a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) an assortment of material is transported with the accelerated solar wind to wrap around the earth. These cause the aurora as atomic and molecular elements burn into the atmosphere they form more molecules. Most of that added friction heat is dissipated, but how much of the variance of the thermosphere’s heat is translated to the surface? One of the resultant molecules of interstellar flotsam is carbon dioxide. One of the characteristics of carbon is that it heats up when it is struck by a photon, and this heats the atmosphere and atmospheric heat can also warm the surface.

Atmospheric heating is not so easy to predict because the hot gasses are light and are moved around the planet by the coriolis effect. Giving the equation a new variable, Relative Solar Atmospheric Heating as opposed to Radiant Surface Heating.