As
each hour passes, the surface temperatures of Huntington High School’s practice
field and student parking lot change for multiple reasons. Solar radiation,
Earth’s energy budget and absorption are just a few. Solar radiation spreads as
the sun rises, the sunlight that strikes the Earth’s surface composes as the
energy budget. As the sun “rises” it’s sunlight, or energy, which these
surfaces absorb. As the day goes on, hour to hour, the surface temperatures
within the allotted times of observation (approximately 9:20 a.m.-1:00 p.m.)
increased. The time which had the greatest difference in temperatures was
9:20/9:30 (depending on when the class went outside). This difference is
because, at that time, the grass of the field was wet and the water was being evaporated.
Another difference that the temperature observations show is albedo. Grass has
a higher albedo than the parking lot’s asphalt. The albedo is simply energy
reflected and asphalt reflects less energy than grass because it is black,
where grass is green. Color and water content both affect the albedo. Water
also affects which will cool down faster. Water changes temperature slowly, so
the grass is slower than asphalt.
As the surfaces cool, the energy which they
absorbed is re-emitted into the atmosphere as long wave infrared radiation.
This is significant to climate change because this type of radiation gets
trapped by greenhouse gases, such as water vapor and nitrogen, and heats up the
atmosphere. The heating of the atmosphere is known as the greenhouse effect.
Another thing that is related to greenhouse effect is Urban Heat Islands. These
are “islands” of heat that have numerous surfaces, such as asphalt, that absorb
heat, which is energy. This energy gets re-emitted as long wave infrared
radiation.
