Explain why the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the earth's surface varies from place to place.

Land covered in concrete and buildings alters the albedo of a pace because dark colours will absorb, rather than reflect incoming sunlight. This creates 'urban heat islands' where temperatures are higher where there is more urbanisation. The presence of cloud also reduces both incoming and outgoing solar radiation. This is because clouds block incoming/outgoing rays and absorb their radiation. Where a place has more clouds due to industrial activity, less solar radiation will be absorbed by the earths surface. Latitude also affects the amount of solar radiation absorbed from place to place; radiation has to travel further to latitudes furthest away from the equator. As the radiation travels through the atmosphere, radiation is lost through absorption and scattering. This means cooler climates are located further away form the equator. Fianlly, land and sea differ in their ability to absorb, transfer and radiate heat energy. The sea is capable of absorbing heat down to a depth of 10m as it is more transparent then land, and can then transfer this heat to greater depths through the movement of waves and currents. The sea also has greater specific heat capacity than land. Specific heat capacity is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of a substance by 1 degree. During the summer the sea heats up more slowly than the land. On cooling in the winter the reverse takes place and land surfaces loose heat more rapidly than water. The ocean acts as an efficient 'thermal reservoir'. Coastal environments have a lower annual range of temperatures than location at the center of continents.