Question

Which  process, conduction, convection, or radiation is most involved with the  distribution of heat around the earth?

Answer 1

ans=by radiation

Energy Heat Transfer

Practically all of the energy that reaches the earth comes from the sun. Intercepted first by the atmosphere, a small part is directly absorbed, particularly by certain gases such as ozone and water vapor. Some energy is also reflected back to space by clouds and the earth's surface.

Energy is transferred between the earth's surface and the atmosphere via conduction, convection, and radiation.

Conduction is the process by which heat energy is transmitted through contact with neighboring molecules.

Some solids, such as metals, are good conductors of heat while others, such as wood, are poor conductors. Air and water are relatively poor conductors.

Since air is a poor conductor, most energy transfer by conduction occurs right at the earth's surface. At night, the ground cools and the cold ground conducts heat away from the adjacent air. During the day, solar radiation heats the ground, which heats the air next to it by conduction.

Convection transmits heat by transporting groups of molecules from place to place within a substance. Convection occurs in fluids such as water and air, which move freely.

In the atmosphere, convection includes large- and small-scale rising and sinking of air masses and smaller air parcels. These vertical motions effectively distribute heat and moisture throughout the atmospheric column and contribute to cloud and storm development (where rising motion occurs) and dissipation (where sinking motion occurs).

To understand the convection cells that distribute heat over the whole earth, let's consider a simplified, smooth earth with no land/sea interactions and a slow rotation. Under these conditions, the equator is warmed by the sun more than the poles. The warm, light air at the equator rises and spreads northward and southward, and the cool dense air at the poles sinks and spreads toward the equator. As a result, two convection cells are formed.

Meanwhile, the slow rotation of the earth toward the east causes the air to be deflected toward the right in the northern hemisphere and toward the left in the southern hemisphere. This deflection of the wind by the earth's rotation is known as the Coriolis effect.

Radiation is the transfer of heat energy without the involvement of a physical substance in the transmission. Radiation can transmit heat through a vacuum.

Energy travels from the sun to the earth by means of electromagnetic waves. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the energy associated with it. This is demonstrated in the animation below. As the drill's revolutions per minute (RPMs) increase, the number of waves generated on the string increases, as does the oscillation rate. The same principle applies to electromagnetic waves from the sun, where shorter wavelength radiation has higher energy than longer wavelength radiation.

Most of the sun's radiant energy is concentrated in the visible and near-visible portions of the spectrum. Shorter-than-visible wavelengths account for a small percentage of the total but are extremely important because they have much higher energy. These are known as ultraviolet wavelengths.