18C Energy in the Atmosphere
18.9 The Radiant Sun
Almost all the energy at the surface of the earth comes directly or indirectly from the sun. The sun emits a wide variety of rays and particles. Most of the sun's radiated energy is in the form of electromagnetic waves, like light energy The sun also emits energetic charged protons and electrons that make up the solar wind. In Chapter 2, you learned that light, or radiant energy, coma in different forms like radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and gamma waves. These different kinds of waves vary in wavelength. Radio waves are the longest waves and gammas are the shortest. Although the sun emits radiant energy at all wavelengths, the majority of the radiant energy received by the earth is in the visible and infrared wavelengths.