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6.5 Light. Radiant energy from the sun is important for several major oceanic processes: Climate, winds, and major ocean currents are ultimately dependent on solar radiation reaching the Earth and heating different areas to different degrees. Sunlight warms the surface water where much oceanic life lives. Solar radiation provides light for ...
Nov 11, 2024 · Clarity of Ocean Water; Measurement of Chlorophyll from Space; Sunlight in the ocean is important for many reasons: It heats sea water, warming the surface layers; it provides energy required by phytoplankton; it is used for navigation by animals near the surface; and reflected subsurface light is used for mapping chlorophyll concentration from space.
Light may be detected as far as 1,000 meters down in the ocean, but there is rarely any significant light beyond 200 meters. The ocean is divided into three zones based on depth and light level. Although some sea creatures depend on light to live, others can do without it. ‘Photic’ is a derivative of ‘photon,’ the word for a particle of ...
- Light Energy and The Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Light Penetration in Water
- Colors in The Photic Zone
Visible sunlight makes up about 40 percent of the total energy Earth receives from the sun. The rest of the energy Earth receives from the sun is not visible. About 50 percent is infrared energy, nine percent is ultraviolet (UV) energy, and one percent is X-rays or microwaves. Electromagnetic radiationis made up of electromagnetic waves that are de...
Plants use sunlight as their primary source of energy through a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthetic organisms in the ocean such as algae and phytoplankton must live in well-lit surface waters called the euphotic zone (Fig. 9.4). The euphotic zoneis the upper part of the ocean that receives bright and clear sunlight (Fig. 9.5). In clear tr...
When sunlight strikes the ocean, some of it reflects off the surface back into the atmosphere. The amount of energy that penetrates the surface of the water depends on the angle at which the sunlight strikes the ocean. Near the equator, the sun’s rays strike the ocean almost perpendicular to the ocean’s surface. Near the poles, the sun’s rays strik...
Apr 10, 2021 · At the mean distance of the earth from the Sun, the solar irradiance from photons of all wavelengths, E s, is. E s = 1 3 6 8 ± 5 W m − 2. Although E s is historically called the solar constant, its value varies by a fraction of a percent on time scales of minutes to decades. A better term is therefore the total solar irradiance.
Light is able to move much more readily through the atmosphere than the ocean. Under most conditions, only the faintest light reaches beyond the top 200 meters (650 feet) of the ocean, with waters deeper than 1 km (3300 feet) completely dark. To put this in perspective the light traveling from the top of the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface ...
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Evaporation and precipitation determine the salinity of the ocean in any given region and both of these processes depend on energy from the sun. Heat from the sun drives the ocean currents and modifies our climate. Sunlight also provides an energy source for the photosynthetic processes of phytoplankton, on which most life in the sea depends ...
