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CHAPTER
INSOLATION
T
he source of all the energy on the earth
including its atmosphere is the sun. The
energy radiated from the sun
comes from nuclear reactions in its core, where
the temperature is about 15,000,0000 C. Only
½ of the billionth fraction of the energy radiated
from the sun is intercepted by the earth. We
commonly, call this radiant energy of the sun
‘heat and light’. It is transmitted in the form of
electromagnetic waves, which are commonly
known as short waves. They travel at the speed
of light (about 2,98,000 km per second). They
drive the engine of the earth that operates the
winds and ocean currents, generates weather
conditions and makes the earth a livable place
for human beings.
INSOLATION
The word insolation connotes incoming solar
radiation. It is absorbed in the lower layer of
the atmosphere as bright light. Light is the
Fig.10.1 : Incidence of the Sun’s Rays at the Earth’s Surface
Note how the high angle and low angle solar radiation spreads over the surface.
AND TEMPERATURE
visible portion of the spectrum lying between
infra-red and ultra-violet. The ultra-violet has
dimension of shortest wavelength. It forms
only 6 per cent of insolation and is consumed
in photochemical reaction. While the infra-
red rays, though invisible, form 43 per cent of
insolation. They are largely absorbed by water
vapour that is concentrated in the lower
atmosphere.
Insolation is greatest at the equator. It
decreases polewards (Fig. 10.1). The total
amount of insolation received at the equator is
roughly about 4 times of that received at the
poles. In tropical regions, the amount of
insolation is not only large but there is also
little seasonal variation. It is because all places
between Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn
experience overhead sun twice during the
course of a year. In the temperate region, the
amount of insolation is less than the tropical
region and the seasonal variation is high.
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Effects of Atmosphere on Insolation
The energy from the sun passes through different
layers of the atmosphere before it reaches the
ground. Atmospheric gases are essentially
transparent to visible light, but suspended
particles of liquid or solid material can absorb
or reflect light. A thick cloud may allow less than
10 per cent of sunlight passing through it to
reach the earth’s surface. Clouds generally
behave like mirrors; they reflect sunlight in
different directions rather than absorbing it.
Reflected sunlight is permanently lost to the
earth. The blue colour of daytime sky is due to
scattering of sunlight. But for scattering effect,
the sky would be black starry even when the sun
is high up in the sky.
Terrestrial Absorption and Radiation
The earth functions like a transformer in
electric circuit, receiving energy in one state
and transmitting it to another. The sun heats
the earth and the earth heats the atmosphere.
Nearly 51 per cent of the solar energy reaches
the earth directly or indirectly. The absorbed
insolation causes the surface temperature to
rise and in turn land becomes energy radiator.
The sun emits short-wave radiation to space.
The earth, on the other hand, radiates long-
wave, which is known as terrestrial radiation.
Impact of Land and Water
The land and water surface react differently to
the incoming solar radiation. The heat
capacity or specific heat of water is five times
that of land surface. This means that same
amount of heat applied to same mass of water
and land result in temperature increase that
is five times greater for the land than water. If
heat is withdrawn from land and water, the
temperature decrease will be five times greater
for the land than for water. This arises from the
fact that water tends to store the heat it
receives, land quickly retur ns it to the
atmosphere. Water is essentially transparent,
it allows some amount of heat to penetrate to
a depth of several metres. Land, on the
contrary, is opaque, so there is great
concentration of insolation in its upper layer.
FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
The general law may be stated as follows.
Land surfaces are rapidly and intensely heated
under the sun’s rays, whereas water surfaces
are only slowly and moderately heated. On the
other hand, land surfaces cool off more rapidly
than water surface when solar radiation is cut
off. Temperature contrasts are, therefore,
more over land areas but only moderate over
water areas.
Heat Budget
Insolation is subjected to several processes of
absorption, reflection and scattering. They
decide the heat budget of the earth and the
atmosphere. The amount of solar energy
passing through the atmosphere depends
upon the angle of the sunrays and
transparency of the atmosphere. It varies
according to time and place. The solar energy
absorbed by the earth gets translated into heat
day after day, year after year. All of our weather
records reveal, certainly in general fashion, a
strong continuity of temperature characteris-
tics with little to indicate the warming trend
that would be mandatory if energy receipt
exceeded loss, so the counter flow must exist.
The gains and losses in heat by incoming and
outgoing radiation is known as heat budget.
The term ‘budget’ implies balance in the gains
and losses of the solar energy on the earth.
The sun emits the short wave radiation to
space, while the earth radiates long-wave or
infra-red radiation to space. The solar energy
strikes the upper limits of the atmosphere and
it gradually reaches the earth’s sur face
directly and indirectly (scattered) and is
absorbed. It is estimated that out of 100 units
of incoming solar energy, only 22 units travel
directly to the earth’s surface. This energy flow
is called direct radiation. The 35 units received
at the upper limit of the troposphere is reflected
and scattered back into space by clouds (24
units), dust particles (7 units) and by surface of
the earth (4 units) in its original short-wave.
Some of the scattered rays (25 units in all)
eventually, find their way down to the earth’s
surface and are absorbed by it. They are
collectively called diffuse radiation. Another 18
units of incoming solar radiation is absorbed
INSOLATION AND TEMPERATURE
Fig.10.2 : Terrestrial Heat Budget
by ozone (3 units), water, dust and other
components of the atmosphere (13 units) and
by clouds (2 units).
In all, 47 units of solar energy reach the
earth’s surfae as direct or diffuse radiation,
while 18 units are absorbed by the atmosphere.
As such 65 units in all (47 units of the earth’s
surface +18 units of the atmosphere) take part
in heating the earth and its atmosphere. To
balance the budget, 65 units are lost to space
in the form of long waves by the earth’s surface
directly (5 units) and reradiated from the earth
to the atmosphere (60 units).
Latitudinal Heat Balance
The mean annual temperature of the earth as a
whole remains same. But balance between
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incoming and outgoing radiation is not uniform
and varies from latitude to latitude. Yet in spite
of this imbalance, no latitude appears to be
getting progressively warmer or colder. In the
low latitudes (between 40 0 North and 40 0
South) heat gained by short wave radiation is
far more than the heat loss by long waves
through the earth’s radiation. While in the higher
latitudes more heat is lost by outgoing long wave
than it is received in short waves. In view of the
imbalances at high and low latitudes, there is a
large scale transfer of heat from tropics to high
latitudes by atmospheric and oceanic
circulation. The transfer of heat takes place in
middle latitudes between 30o and 50o. In short,
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nature provides mechanism of heat transfer
from tropics towards poles mainly through
atmospheric circulation (75 per cent) and
through oceanic current (25 per cent) to
maintain the heat balance for the earth as a
whole.
Convection and Advection
The transfer of heat in the atmosphere takes
place in many ways. Transfer of heat through
horizontal movement of the air is called
advection. Vertical mixing of the air or
turbulence is also frequent. It is called
convection. The convective transfer of energy
is confined only to the troposphere. Air in the
lower layer of the atmosphere gets heated
either by the earth’s radiation, called terrestrial
radiation or by conduction. When two bodies
of unequal temperature are in contact with one
another, there is a flow of energy from the
warmer to cooler body. The transfer of heat
continues until both the bodies attain the
same temperature or the contact is broken.
Metals are good conductors, air is not. Hence,
conduction is important in heating the lower
layers of the atmosphere. The heating of air leads
to expansion. As its density decreases, it
becomes lighter and moves upwards. The
Fig.10.3 : Tranfer of Heat — Convective Motions in Liquid and Gases
FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
continuous ascent of heated air creates vacuum
in lower layer. The cooler air above, being denser
and heavier, slips down to fill the vacuum,
leading to constant heating of warm air on one
side and slipping cold air on the other side
(Fig.10.3). Hence, the cyclic movement of air is
associated with the heat transfer from lower layer
to upper layer.
Horizontal air movement is relatively more
important than vertical movement. In middle
latitudes, most of diurnal (day and night)
variation in daily weather are caused by
advection alone. The scorching winds blowing
during summer, locally called ‘loo’ in northern
India, are an outcome of advection process.
Similarly, in temperate regions the advection
of warm tropical air in colder months makes
the weather pleasant. Cold polar air carries
cold air towards warm regions of the world.
Large scale reversal in temperature of the
atmosphere near the earth surface is thus
brought about by the process of advection.
TEMPERATURE AND ITS CONTROL
The temperature is the measurement of
available or sensible heat energy in a system.
It is a measure of hotness or coldness of the
body. Such property determines whether heat
INSOLATION AND TEMPERATURE
will flow out or into an object when it comes
in contact with other objects.
Latitude
The earth revolves round the sun once in a
year, in an elliptical path called the ‘plane of
ecliptic’. At the same time, the earth rotates
on its own axis in 24 hours. The earth’s axis
is tilted making an angle of 660 30’ with the
plane. Due to the inclination of the earth’s
axis, the angle of the sun’s rays falling on the
earth’s surface varies from vertical on the
equator to more and more slanting as one
moves towards the poles.
When the northern hemisphere is tilted
towards the sun, it receives maximum amount
of insolation. On 21June the sun is overhead at
the Tropic of Cancer and it is the longest day of
the year for the northern hemisphere. All this
time, the southern hemisphere is away from the
sun and 21 June is the shortest day of the year
for the southern hemisphere. On 21 March and
23 September the sun is overhead at the
equator and the length of the day and night is
same everywhere throughout the world. This
position of the earth is called equinox.
On 22 December the sun is overhead at the
T ropic of Capricor n and the souther n
hemisphere receives the maximum daylight. It
is, however, the shortest day for the northern
hemisphere. Thus, areas between the tropics
receive the maximum insolation. As one moves
away from the equator towards the poles, the
intensity of insolation decreases causing fall in
temperature.
Altitude
The temperature decreases with increasing
altitude from the earth’s sur face. This
vertical decrease in the temperature is at the
rate 0.65 o C per 100 metre or 165 m/1 0C.
These variations are normal throughout the
troposphere and are termed as normal lapse
rate. The direct source of atmospheric heat lies
at the surface of the earth. The atmosphere
near the surface is denser and contains large
amount of water vapour and dust particles.
Being closer to land surface, it absorbs more
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terrestrial heat than that of upper air. Hence,
temperature is higher in the lower part of the
atmosphere than the upper part, where the air
is cleaner and less dense. That is why higher we
go cooler it is. Udagamandalam, Mount Abu,
Panchmarhi are cooler in summer than plains.
Land and Water
Land and water surface react differently to
incoming solar radiation. That is why land,
water and ice get heated and cooled at different
rates. Hence, the temperature of air resting
over land differs markedly from the one over
water on the same latitude. The temperature
contrast between continents and oceans is
greater during winter than summer. Lands
heat and cool rapidly because solar radiation
cannot penetrate solid surface to a great
depth. As against this, it can penetrate water
to a greater depth. There is also considerable
vertical mixing in water. Moreover, the energy
required to raise the land’s temperature by
given number of degrees would have to be
tripled in order to increase the sur face
temperature of water by equal amount. As a
consequence of this heating differential, air
above the oceans remain cooler in summer
and warmer in winter than does the air on land
surface.
Prevailing Winds
Prevailing winds also affect the temperature
conditions of the areas. The moderating effects
of oceans are brought to the adjacent lands
through on shore winds. On the contrary, off
shore winds take the effects of warm or cold
currents away from land.
Ocean Currents
Ocean currents are large movements of ocean
water from places of warm temperature to
colder temperatures or vice-versa. Their
movement affects the temperature of the
adjacent areas. The warm currents raise the
temperature of adjoining colder landmasses.
The climate of north wester n Europe is
modified to a large extent by ocean currents of
the North Atlantic Ocean. The cold currents of
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the western coast of South Africa or South
America lowers temperature of adjacent
warmer lands.
HORIZONTAL DISTRIBUTION
OF TEMPERATURE
The temperature distribution over the earth’s
surface could be analysed from the isothermal
maps of winter and summer. Isotherms are
imaginary lines connecting places of equal
temperature reduced to sea level. Isotherms,
in general, follow the parallels of latitudes
because it is the cause of temperature
contrast. In general, January and July months
represent the seasonal extremes of
temperature (Figs.10.4(a) and 10.4(b)). A
comparison of maps, shows that there is a
marked latitudinal shifting of isotherms
between January and July, following
apparent movement of the sun and the
latitudinal migration of the thermal belt. It is
noted that where horizontal temperature
changes are large, isotherms are closely
spaced. On the contrary, where horizontal
temperature differences are less, isotherms are
widely spaced. The rate of change of
temperature is called temperature gradient.
We can draw the following inferences from
isothermal maps:
• The highest temperatures are found in
tropics and sub-tropics. They receive the
largest amount of insolation throughout the
year. On the other hand, lowest
temperatures are recorded in polar regions,
where the amount of solar energy received
is very small.
• Isotherms within tropics are widely spaced
as temperature gradient is very gentle and
insignificant. The temperature gradient is
very steep in higher latitudes as well as on
the eastern margins of the continents.
• January isotherms bend sharply on the
continents towards the equator indicating
that winter in the interior of the continent
is more severe in the northern hemisphere.
On the other hand, isotherms on the
oceans exhibit poleward bend showing
FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
thereby that the oceans are relatively
warmer.
January-Isotherms
You will notice that in the norther n
hemisphere, it is winter. The 00C isotherm
passes through the North Pacific. It is fairly
straight through Aleutian striking the west
coast of North America at Alaska. In the middle
latitude region, the western coasts of
continents are warmer than their counterparts
on the eastern side, because warm ocean
currents raise the winter temperature
condition of the onshore areas. The close
spacing of the January isotherms over the
continents in the northern hemisphere
indicates steep temperature gradient. It is
very steep on the eastern sides of North
America and Asia. It indicates that in January
north eastern Siberia, Greenland, and parts
of Asia, are the coldest places on the earth.
In the southern hemisphere, it is summer.
300C isotherm passes through north western
Argentina, eastern part of Africa, Borneo and
Australia in the southern hemisphere.
July-Isotherms
The July isotherms in the northern hemisphere
are irregular, zigzag and widely spaced. This
shows warm season and summer conditions.
The 350 C isotherm passes over north Africa,
south west Asia and north western part of India
and south western part of America.
In the southern hemisphere, isotherms
bend towards poles on continents and towards
equator on oceans. The continents are much
warmer than oceans. The isotherms in the
southern hemisphere are more regular, straight
and closely spaced. This shows wintry
conditions.
Inversion of Temperature
Normally, temperature decreases with increase
in elevation. It is called normal lapse rate. At
times, the situation is reversed and
the normal lapse rate is inverted. It is
called Inversion of temperature. Inversion
is usually of short duration but quite common
nonetheless. A long winter night with clear
 INSOLATION AND TEMPERATURE

Fig.10.4(a) : World — January Isotherms ( Temperature in °C)

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W E

N N

S
S

W E

Fig.10.4(b) : World — July Isotherms ( Temperature in °C)

FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
INSOLATION AND TEMPERATURE 71

skies and still air is ideal situation for inversion.
The heat of the day is radiated off during the
night, and by early morning hours, the earth is
cooler than the air above. Over polar areas,
temperature inversion is normal throughout the
year.
Surface inversion promotes stability in the
lower layers of the atmosphere. Smoke and
dust particles get collected beneath the
inversion layer and spread horizontally to fill
the lower strata of the atmosphere. Dense fogs
in mor nings are common occurrences
especially during winter season. This inversion
commonly lasts for few hours until the sun
comes up and begins to warm the earth.
The inversion takes place in hills and
mountains due to air drainage. Cold air at the
hills and mountains, produced during night,
flows under the influence of gravity. Being heavy
and dense, the cold air acts almost like water and
moves down the slope to pile up deeply in
pockets and valley bottoms with warm air above.
This is called air drainage. It protects plants
from frost damages.
• Plank’s law states that hotter a body, the
more energy it will radiate and shorter
the wavelength of that radiation.
• Specific heat is the energy needed to raise
the temperature of one gram of substance
by one Celsius.

EXERCISES

Review Questions
1. Answer the following questions:
(i) What is insolation?
(ii) How much energy radiated by the sun is intercepted by the earth?
(iii) Why do different parallels receive different amount of insolation?
(iv) How does the angle of the sun’s rays falling on the ground affect the amount of insolation?
(v) What are isotherms?
(vi) What is air drainage?
2. Distinguish between :
(i) Insolation and terrestrial radiation;
(ii) Advection and convection;
(iii) Normal lapse rate and inversion of temperature.
3. Write short notes on:
(i) Differential heating of land and water;
(ii) Heat budget;
(iii) Latitudinal heat balance.
4. How is the atmosphere heated? Discuss the role of terrestrial radiation in the process.
5. What are the basic mechanisms of heat transfer? Discuss the importance of these mechanisms
with reference to the atmosphere.
6. Discuss the factors controlling the horizontal distribution of temperature especially with
reference to July and January conditions.

Map Reading
By referring to the map showing world distribution of temperature give reasons why
• Isotherms generally trend east-west.
• Isotherms shift north and south from season to season.
• Isotherms bend while crossing over land to water and vice versa.
• Isotherms are more regular in the southern hemisphere than in the northern hemisphere.