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Link list on the Sun as energy source and its relevance for the Earth |
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The SOHO project invites you to explore the Sun and gives very basic as well as more detailed information. |
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Visualisation of the Sun’s impact The Sun transfers energy to our planet Earth and heats it. Animations of temperature distributions on land and sea can help to visualise which regions of the Earth receive more or less energy: |
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Inclination of the Earth's axis and seasons |
Many websites illustrate the Earth's orbit and how seasons are caused by Earth's tilted axis. You will find good explanations and illustrations on the following pages: |
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Solar radiation and solar constant Basics about solar radiation are explained on common pages like the one of Wikipedia |
But the real energy transferred varies as for example illustrated on the following HelioClim page: |
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The variability of the solar constant is too complex a topic to be taught in classes. If you would like to read more than explained here in the background article, you will find a good summary of investigation methods in the following paper (Attention: PDF document - loading time): |
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If students are interested in interactions between Sun and Earth other than light, the following NASA / Themis page can give an introduction: |
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Energy distribution and radiation budget |
The following very simple but very efficient introduction page from climatepredicition.net explains, what happens to the Sun’s energy on the Earth, how it is distributed by winds and by the oceans: |
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Numerous pages describe the Earth's radiation budget related to the greenhouse effect, but some also make the link to the solar energy and its distribution, like the following ESPERE page:
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