Question

What causes the differential heating of land and water?

Answer 1

Hint:
1) It is the disparity in heating of air over land versus water. Sea breezes occur when land heats up faster than water, rising and creating a low-pressure system.
2) This is passed on to the air above by conduction which causes air expansion and changes in pressure.

Complete answer:
- The disparity in how land and water surfaces absorb heat is referred to as differential heating. The heat consumed by the oceans is spread over a larger depth than the heat absorbed by land surfaces due to mixing.
- As a result, the difference between land and ocean temperatures is greatest in the summer, when the amount of solar radiation is strongest. As a result, the air over the land heats up and spreads, becoming less dense and increasing. This rising air is then replaced by moisture-rich air from above the ocean's surface.
- The amount of solar energy reaching the earth's surface defines the degree and direction of differential heating between land and sea. The disparity is most apparent in the summer, when the land surface is colder than the oceans, allowing surface winds to pass onshore.
- While the ocean surface is colder than the land in the winter, the impact on winds is less than in the summer. The surface winds are reversed and less powerful in this situation.
- A "sea breeze" is produced by the diurnal variability of differential heating. Strong prevailing winds are created when the differential heating lasts for several months, as it does in the winter and summer. A monsoon climate is characterised by persistent prevailing winds.

Thus the consequences of differential heating are extreme in the Indian Ocean because it is bordered to the north by the world's largest land mass.

Note:
- In and around the Indian subcontinent, this differential heating of land and sea produces distinct air pressure areas in different seasons. The direction of monsoon winds is reversed due to a change in air pressure.
- Temperature variations arise from uneven heating, which allows air currents (wind) to form, which then transfer heat from where there is more heat (higher temperatures) to where there is less heat (lower temperatures) (lower temperatures). As a result, the atmosphere transforms into a massive "heat engine" that is constantly powered by the sun.