What Affects Solar Radiation on Earth

 

Brenton Brown- Experiment/Work

Josh Lanning- Experiment/Work

 

 

Problem

 

Does dust or water droplets have a greater affect on

solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface?

 

 

 

Purpose

 

 

What affects solar radiation from reaching the earth’s surface?

 

 

 

Hypothesis

 

We think water will have a greater affect by magnifying

solar radiations affect on the Earth’s surface.

 

 

 

 

Materials

 

 

1.                  3 Plastic Boxes with lids  (shoebox size)

2.                  3 Weather Thermometers

3.                  Tape

4.                  Water

5.                  Spray Bottle

6.                  Flour

7.                  Measuring Spoon  ( 4 tsp.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Procedure

 

1.                  Set up the three plastic boxes with thermometers taped on the inside

2.                  One will be control, another will have 4 tsp. of flour spread evenly across the top, and the third will have 4 tsp. of water on the top

3.                  Place outside and check the temperature every 10 minutes

4.                  Record Data after every check

 

 

Data

 

Day 2		Mostly Cloudy
	Control	Water	Flour
10 min	70	72	70
20 min	72	72	71
30 min	70	70	69
40 min	70		70
50 min	71		71
60 min	71		71

 

Day 1		Sunny
	Control	Water	Flour
10 min	95	82	84
20 min	96	90	99
30 min	102	95	99
40 min	100	97	100
50 min	98	98	100
60 min	98	94	99

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Observation

 

Day 1 (2-13-01) was sunny with temperature ranging the mid 60’s. Set up experiment about 1:30 –1:40 pm. Continued to check experiment every 10 minutes and recorded data.

Day 2  (2-15-01) was mostly cloudy with temperatures ranging mid 50’s. We set up at 1:20 and continued our procedure.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

Our hypothesis was incorrect. We found that the solar radiation was refracted by the water instead of magnifying the suns heat increasing the sun’s temperature inside the box.

 

 

Q&A

 

 

1.                  How did you measure the effect of dust and water on solar heating of the atmosphere?

We determined the affect of dust and water on solar heating in Earth’s atmosphere by measuring the temperature inside the boxes.

2.                  If you used a shoebox model setup, which setup showed the greatest variation in temperature? What was the significance of this?

We did not use a shoebox set up.

3.                  As a meteorologist, how could you use the results of your experiment to help make weather predictions?

As a meteorologist we would use the information to determine the temperature dependent on certain weather conditions that would stir up dust  or produce rainfall.

4.                  Does your experiment accurately model the real world? Why or why not? What could you do too improve the experiment?

It partially models the real world, because the plastic box acts as another layer in the Earth’s atmosphere. We could use a type of box that would allow more radiation to flow through as well as allowing more radiation to escape to more accurately simulate the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

Extensions

 

We did not have any extensions.

 

Bibliography

 

We did this experiment entirely on our own. We did no other research aside from the results of our experiment.