• Question: How does the temperature change on earth?

    Asked by JassySapphire25 to Chris, Hayley, Jimi, Maddison, Omur on 11 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      In lots of ways…

      1) Every day the Earth makes one full rotation, so that the sun is always shining on a different part. As the sun shines on the Earth it warms is up, but when that part of the Earth is rotated away from the sun (night time) it gets cooler again. The daily heating and cooling of the seas and the land are one of the things that causes wind.

      2) Every year, the Earth orbits the Sun. The Earth is on a tilt, and as it goes around, the angle relative to the sun changes… that is, in January, the South Pole is pointing more toward the Sun, but in July the North Pole is pointing more towards the sun. This is why we have summer and winter… and why it’s winter here for Christmas, but at the same time it’s summer in Australia.

      3) The over-all temperature of the Earth goes up and down over time… e.g. about 25,000 years ago there was an ice age. This can be because of changing levels of carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere, or changes in solar activity.

      4) The orbit of planets and the temperature of stars changes over millions of years so that the temperature will change… either because the planet gets closer to or further away from the star it’s orbiting, or because the star grows/shrinks/changes temperature.

    • Photo: Omur Tastan

      Omur Tastan answered on 13 Mar 2016:

      Can’t add much to what Jimi said. The temperature can change in many ways and the one that worries me the most is something called Global Warming which is mostly due to the GreenHouse effect that is caused by the gases that accumulate in our athmosphere. The sun lights can come inside, get trapped and make the Earth a warmer place. Over a long period, this warming up might mean trouble for the next generations if we didn’t take precautions!

    • Photo: Hayley Moulding

      Hayley Moulding answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Oh many many different ways. Jimi has answered the question pretty well there. At that moment we have climate change and global warming which is an accelerated process of warming of the Earth and its atmosphere. At the same time though, we have global cooling, which is the opposite! Unfortunately, there isn’t really a balance anymore and with all the different things humans do and the amount of pollutants leading to changes in the O-zone layer surrounding the Earth and weather, we might need to look after our planet a lot more.

Comments