Why Does Temperature vary over the world?

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Why Does Temperature vary over the world

There are two different sorts of factors that alter the answer to this question and these are long-term and short-term factors.

Long-term factors

Land and sea areas mostly influence atmospheric temperature. This is evident in the colder months when it is evident that the waters in the same area are always colder than the land the same areas. In the summer months this is totally reversed.

Land and sea differ in their ability to absorb, transfer and radiate heat energy. The sea is more transparent than the land, and is capable of absorbing heat down to a depth of 10 metres. It can then transfer this heat to greater depths through movements of waves and currents. The sea also has a greater specific heat capacity than that of land. Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1kg of a substance by 1degree Celsius, expressed in kilojoules per kg per degrees Celsius. The specific heat capacity of water is 4.2kj/kg/degree c. That of soil is 2.1kj/kg/degree c and that of sand is 0.84kj/kg/degree c. This all means that water requires twice as much energy as soil and five times more than sand to raise an equivalent mass to the same temperature. During summer therefore the sae heats up more slowly than the land. In winter, the reverse is the case and land surfaces loose heat energy more rapidly than water. The oceans act as efficient 'thermal reservoirs' this is why coastal environments have a lower annual range of temperature than locations at the centres of continents.

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Ocean currents are a major factor in the variations of temperatures across the world, due to the process of horizontal transfer of heat energy. Warm currents carry water pole wards and raise the temperature of the maritime environments where they flow. Cold currents carry water towards the equator and so lower the temperatures of coastal areas. The mean difference of one place and the mean same monthly totals of places with the same latitude; this difference is known as Temperature anomaly.

(The term 'temperature anomaly' is used specifically to describe temperature differences from a mean.) Anomalies result ...

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