Grd 11 Geography: Earth's Energy Balance

Kgolagano Vena

Grd 11 Geography essay

09-03-2015

This essay will be discussing the Earth’s energy balance, with points including the Earth’s heat budget and the imbalance. The Earth’s heat budget is influenced by factors along the horizontal. The angle of strike; the equator receives direct insolation from the sun because it is directly overhead the equator. The subpolar zones do not receive direct insolation because the angle is low and the insolation has to spread over a large area. Another factor is atmospheric depletion; at the equator there is less atmosphere for the insolation to reach the earth’s surface, whereas at the subpolar zones, the insolation has a lot of atmosphere to travel through in order to reach the surface. The third factor is unit surface area; because the equator receives direct sunlight, the surface area that the

So of these factors contribute to whether the area will have a surplus or a deficit. Usually the tropical zones will have a surplus and subpolar zones a deficit. This is due to the distance from the sun orbit, axis rotation, atmospheric depletion, North or South facing slopes, and the concentration of solar energy.

In order for the earth’s energy imbalance to be transferred across the earth, ocean currents and winds are needed to create an energy balance. The oceans transfer heat by their currents, which move warm ocean currents from the equator up to the higher latitudes, being the poles so heat can be transferred from tropical zones to subpolar zones. And Cold Ocean currents back down towards the equator, transferring cold water down thus cooling the equator. Due to this transfer of heat, climate