Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others may be temporarily created. The belts are named after James Van Allen, who published an article describing the belts in 1958. [1] [2] Earth's two main belts extend from an altitude of about 640 to 58,000 km (400 to 36,040 mi) [3] above the surface, in which region radiation levels vary.
A magnet's North pole is defined as the pole that is attracted by the Earth's North Magnetic Pole, in the arctic region, when the magnet is suspended so it can turn freely. Since opposite poles attract, the North Magnetic Pole of the Earth is really the south pole of its magnetic field (the place where the field is directed downward into the ...
The average annual solar radiation arriving at the top of the Earth's atmosphere is about 1361 W/m 2. This represents the power per unit area of solar irradiance across the spherical surface surrounding the Sun with a radius equal to the distance to the Earth (1 AU).
695,700 kilometres (432,300 miles) is approximately 10 times the average radius of Jupiter, 109 times the radius of the Earth, and 1/215th of an astronomical unit, the approximate distance between Earth and the Sun.
The one at a shallower angle covers twice as much area with the same amount of light energy. Figure 1 presents a case when sunlight shines on Earth at a lower angle (Sun closer to the horizon), the energy of the sunlight is spread over a larger area, and is therefore weaker than if the Sun is higher overhead and the energy is concentrated on a ...
Earth's magnetosphere is shaped by the impact of the solar wind on Earth's magnetic field. This forms an obstacle to the flow, diverting it, at an average distance of about 70,000 km (11 Earth radii or Re), [ 60 ] producing a bow shock 12,000 km to 15,000 km (1.9 to 2.4 Re) further upstream.
Illustration of the difference between geomagnetic poles (N m and S m) and geographical poles (N g and S g) Location of the north magnetic pole and the north geomagnetic pole in 2017. [ 1 ] The geomagnetic poles are antipodal points where the axis of a best-fitting dipole intersects the surface of Earth .
Sunlight on the surface of Earth is attenuated by Earth's atmosphere, so that less power arrives at the surface (closer to 1,000 W/m 2) in clear conditions when the Sun is near the zenith. [100] Sunlight at the top of Earth's atmosphere is composed (by total energy) of about 50% infrared light, 40% visible light, and 10% ultraviolet light. [101]