Differential heating of land and water.

Solution

Land and water surfaces show contrasting behaviour in relation to the incoming solar radiation. Land warms and cools more quickly than the water. The sun ray's penetrate to a depth of only 3 feet in land because it is opaque but they penetrate to greater depths in water because it is transparant. The thin layers of the earth become warm more quickly and also become cold more quickly by emiting heat. On the other land the same amount of insolation has to heat larger volume of water in oceans because of the penetration of the solar rays to a greater depths and thus the temperature of the ground surface becomes higher than the water surface though the amount of insolation received is same in both the cases. There is more evaporation from oceans and hence more heat is spent in this process with the result oceans get less insolation than the land surfaces. The specific heat (the amount of heat needed to raise 1 g of a substance by 1°C) of water is much greater than the land surface as the relative density of water is more than the land surface. Hence more heat is required to raise the same volume of water as compared to landmass. The albedo (reflection) of insolation by water surface is more than the land surface. Thus less amount of insolation is received by the oceans in real terms. In these ways, differential heating of land and water surfaces occurs.

Some More Questions From Solar Radiation, Heat Balance and Temperature Chapter

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Solar Radiation, Heat Balance And Temperature

Differential heating of land and water.

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