Thermal Energy Transfer through the Hydrosphere

• Global winds is the transfer of thermal energy from warmer latitudes near the equator to cooler areas near the poles.
• Earth's continents affect the general patterns of the ocean's currents

  • currents change direction when they encounter a large land mass
• Convection currents: vertical transfer of thermal energy through the ocean and other bodies of water

  • density of water decreases when temperature increase = warm water rises
• Hydrologic cycle (water cycle): the process that describes the movement of water between the different components of the biosphere

  • water evaporates into water vapour, turns to precipitation and repeat
• When water changes state, thermal energy is either released or absorbed, but the temperature of the water remains the same

  • thermal energy is released when new bonds formed (vapour to liquid, liquid to solid)
  • energy is absorbed to break the bonds (solid to liquid, liquid to vapour)
• Heating Curve of Water:

  • at the temperature where water changes state, the temperature of the water temporarily stops
  • solid to liquid, and liquid to gas = energy is absorbed, but no change in temperature
  • gas to liquid, and liquid to gas = energy is released (no temperature change)
• high specific heat capacity = takes a lot of energy to increase the temperature of water
• Since water has a relatively high specific heat capacity, it takes a large amount of energy to increase the temperature of a mass of water, hence large amount of energy is released from a mass of water when the temperature of the water decreases.

  • regions with little water heat and cool more rapidly
  • regions with large bodies of water tend to have more moderate climate