levo

Weather and Climate

The atmospheric heat budget

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 3 Section B

Overview

Atmospheric heat budget, ice-albedo feedback and latent heat transfer in the context of the heat budget.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What is the atmospheric heat budget?

Key term

Define insolation.

Key term

Why do the tropics receive more insolation per unit area than the poles?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is the atmospheric heat budget?

    Model answer

    The atmospheric heat budget is the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the Earth. Over the planet as a whole the two are equal.

  2. 2

    Define insolation.

    Model answer

    Insolation is incoming solar radiation received at a surface. The amount depends on the angle of the sun and the length of day.

  3. 3

    Why do the tropics receive more insolation per unit area than the poles?

    Model answer

    Sunlight strikes the tropics from close to overhead, so a beam is concentrated on a small area. The same beam is spread over a far larger area at high latitudes.

  4. 4

    Why does a low sun angle also mean more atmospheric absorption?

    Model answer

    A low-angle beam passes through a greater thickness of atmosphere. More radiation is scattered, reflected and absorbed before reaching the ground.

  5. 5

    Define albedo.

    Model answer

    Albedo is the proportion of incoming radiation reflected by a surface, expressed as a percentage or a fraction.

  6. 6

    Give approximate albedo values for fresh snow and for the open ocean.

    Model answer

    Fresh snow reflects about 80 to 90% of incoming radiation. The open ocean reflects around 6 to 10%.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

The 3-step method, run for you

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Coastal Landscapes
Glaciated Landscapes
Changing Places
Water and Carbon Cycles

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

One therefore represents 250 metres.
centimetremetremillimetre

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

ACustomary rights are often unwritten.
BA government can lease the same land to an investor.
COccupants then have no legal defence against eviction.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Due west is a bearing of 270°.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Weather and Climate, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.