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john m
Lv 4
john m asked in EnvironmentClimate Change · 7 years ago

What has the biggest effect on the Troposphere?

The sun at the surface is about 6000K and some 150,000,000 km away http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

The Earth core radiates at about 6000k and about 7000km from the surface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_core

Update:

Edit Realclimate Take a litre of water cantain in a pot and heat it from above how long will it take to boil now repeat with the same heat source from the bottom through the pot till it boils. Which boils first and why ?

7 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    7 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Lightning is hotter than both.

    "the air around a lightning bolt can reach as high as 54,000 degrees. That's over five times hotter than the surface of the sun."

    http://atmo.tamu.edu/weather-and-climate/weather-w...

    What effects the troposphere isn't so much the temperature of the Sun, or of Earth's interior, but rate of energy transfer. Earth receives 174 petawatts of power from the Sun.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy

    But Earth's interior only releases 44.2 terawatts.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy

    Earth gets about 4000 times as much energy from the Sun as from Earth's interior.

    < Take a litre of water cantain in a pot and heat it from above how long will it take to boil now repeat with the same heat source from the bottom through the pot till it boils.>

    You forgot that to be a realistic model, you would need about 3 feet of fibreglass insulation between the heat source and the pot.

    Or how about this? Stand out in the Sun on a hot summer day and stand outside in the same place on a cold winter night, and tell me if the Earth heats you up on the cold winter night as much as the Sun does on the hot winter day.

  • 7 years ago

    The incoming energy flux from the sun is much greater than the geothermal heat flux. The mean solar flux absorbed at the surface of the Earth is about 161 Wm^-2, while the mean geothermal heat flux is about 0.087 Wm^-2, that makes the sun's flux about 1800 times greater.

    EDIT: Here's a question for you: the Earth is not actually a sphere, but an oblate spheroid. That means that the poles are closer to the core than the equator, so why are they covered with ice?

  • Kano
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    The Earth does radiate heat from it's core but very little, thank god otherwise we would have cooled down by now and our planet would be like mars, we would've lost our magnetic field and with it a lot of our water and atmosphere.

    The Suns radiation sends us 1366watt/sq m but some is reflected some absorbed and about 1000watts/sq m warms the surface of earth.

    What has the biggest effect on the temperature of our troposphere, hmm I would say, the sun along with convection and evaporation of heat from the sun warmed surface of our earth.,

  • 7 years ago

    Radiation from the core does have an effect on the Earth's temperature, but afaik not a very big one. They may be the same temperature, but the core is much smaller, and surrounded by layers of insulating rock. I'm pretty sure the amount of radiation reaching the Earth's surface from the sun is much, much, much bigger than the amount of radiation reaching the Earth's surface from the core.

    Source(s): Please check out my open questions.
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  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    Ozone occurs naturally at ground-level in low concentrations. The two major sources of natural ground-level ozone are hydrocarbons, which are released by plants and soil, and small amounts of stratospheric ozone, which occasionally migrate down to the earth's surface. Neither of these sources contributes enough ozone to be considered a threat to the health of humans or the environment.

    But the ozone that is a byproduct of certain human activities does become a problem at ground level and this is what we think of as 'bad' ozone. With increasing populations, more automobiles, and more industry, there's more ozone in the lower atmosphere. Since 1900 the amount of ozone near the earth's surface has more than doubled. Unlike most other air pollutants, ozone is not directly emitted from any one source. Tropospheric ozone is formed by the interaction of sunlight, particularly ultraviolet light, with hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, which are emitted by automobiles, gasoline vapors, fossil fuel power plants, refineries, and certain other industries.

    In urban areas in the Northern Hemisphere, high ozone levels usually occur during the warm, sunny summer months (from May through September). Typically, ozone levels reach their peak in mid to late afternoon, after the sun has had time to react fully with the exhaust fumes from the morning rush hours. A hot, sunny, still day is the perfect environment for ozone pollution production. In early evening, the sunlight's intensity decreases and the photochemical production process that forms ground level ozone begins to subside.

    Negative Impacts of Tropospheric Ozone

    While stratospheric ozone shields us from ultraviolet radiation, in the troposphere this irritating, reactive molecule damages forests and crops; destroys nylon, rubber, and other materials; and injures or destroys living tissue. It is a particular threat to people who exercise outdoors or who already have respiratory problems.

    Ozone affects plants in several ways. High concentrations of ozone cause plants to close their stomata. These are the cells on the underside of the plant that allow carbon dioxide and water to diffuse into the plant tissue. This slows down photosynthesis and plant growth. Ozone may also enter the plants through the stomata and directly damage internal cells.

    Rubber, textile dyes, fibers, and certain paints may be weakened or damaged by exposure to ozone. Some elastic materials can become brittle and crack, while paints and fabric dyes may fade more quickly.

    When ozone pollution reaches high levels, pollution alerts are issued urging people with respiratory problems to take extra precautions or to remain indoors. Smog can damage respiratory tissues through inhalation. Ozone has been linked to tissue decay, the promotion of scar tissue formation, and cell damage by oxidation. It can impair an athlete's performance, create more frequent attacks for individuals with asthma, cause eye irritation, chest pain, coughing, nausea, headaches and chest congestion and discomfort. It can worsen heart disease, bronchitis, and emphysema.

    So why can't we take all of this "bad" ozone and blast it up into the stratosphere? The answer lies in the vast quantities needed and ozone's instability in the dynamic atmosphere. Ozone molecules don't last very long, with or without human intervention. The vehicle necessary to transport such enormous amounts of ozone into the stratosphere does not exist, and, if it did, it would require so much fuel that the resulting pollution might undo any positive effect. Rather than seek such grandiose solutions, we need to decrease the production of those chemicals that break down ozone in the stratosphere and help create ozone in the troposphere.

    The dual ozone problems—pollution or smog in the troposphere and depletion of the ozone layer in the stratosphere—are indeed very different. But the problems have common ties in that they both are related to air pollutants that come from industry, transportation, and other human activities.

  • 7 years ago

    over population.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    nice try, it's not the earth's core.

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