🌡️ TEMPERATURE: SOLAR ENERGY & HEAT
PAGE 1 OF 5, THE SUN: WEATHER'S BATTERY
EM RADIATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY, NOT A ROPE
The Sun sits almost 150 million km away — but its light and other radiation cross space in about 8 minutes and slam into the top of Earth's atmosphere. Some is reflected back to space; some is absorbed by air, cloud, and ground. What stays in the surface–ocean–atmosphere system is the main engine of weather. Without that steady input, the planet would freeze (except for leftover internal Earth heat, tiny compared to sunlight). Heat is how we describe energy on the move and stored in wiggling molecules — temperature is a number on a scale for "how fast those wiggles are, on average."
🔋 BALANCE
Earth also radiates energy back to space. Long-term, in ≈ out is why the climate stays in a liveable range — with natural and human twists.
GLOW!
RAYS
Beams are more spread out near poles, more concentrated near equator (big picture)
OZONE
The atmosphere is not a clear window for all wavelengths — ozone and clouds matter