Energy in the Earth’s Atmosphere

Most of all the energy (heat) in the atmosphere comes from the sun. This energy travels to the earth as electromagnetic waves – a form of energy that could move through space. When the waves from the sun hit us directly it is called radiation.

The energy(heat) we receive from the sun travels to Earth in three possible ways: visible light, infrared radiation, or ultraviolet rays( UV rays).

Visible Light - It’s all the colors that we see in the rainbow Visible Light - It’s all the colors that we see in the rainbow. Red orange yellow green blue violet. Infrared Radiation- it’s not visible but we feel it as heat. Ultraviolet Rays- this has the shortest waves. We feel it as sunburns, skin cancer ,and eye damage.

Before the sunlight reaches us, it must pass through the atmosphere. • Some of the suns rays are absorbed or reflected before they reach us. The rest comes down to us. The ozone layer absorbs most of the UV rays (the harmful ones). • Water vapor and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also absorb some of the rays. • Cloud, dust, and other gases absorb the energy too.

What does it mean that some sunlight is reflected? The clouds act like mirrors and reflect the sunlight back into space. The dust and the gases also reflect the light in all different directions, called scattering. When we look up at the sky, the light we see has been scattered by the gas molecules in the atmosphere. (They scatter the shorter waves more than the longer waves. The shorter one is blue so the sky always looks blue.)

Energy for Earth: We get the rest of the 50 percent of the suns rays as heat.