What is the importance of heat transfer in the water cycle?
The sun is what makes the water cycle work. The sun provides what almost everything on Earth needs to go—energy, or heat. Heat causes liquid and frozen water to evaporate into water vapor gas, which rises high in the sky to form clouds… clouds that move over the globe and drop rain and snow.
What are the two most important things in the water cycle?
Evaporation, condensation, and precipitation are important parts of the water cycle.
How is the water cycle important to life on Earth?
Water molecules continuously move from location to location in this cycle. The water cycle is important to weather and climate and, ultimately, to all life on Earth. The water cycle is driven primarily by the energy from the sun. This solar energy drives the cycle by evaporating water from the oceans, lakes, rivers, and even the soil.
How is the water cycle fueled by the Sun?
Water & Energy Cycle. When energy from the Sun reaches the Earth, it warms the atmosphere, land, and ocean and evaporates water. The movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean—the water cycle—is fueled by energy from the Sun.
How does evaporation and condensation affect the water cycle?
As this occurs, liquid water absorbs energy, causing it to evaporate and form water vapor. The process of evaporation absorbs tremendous amounts of incoming solar energy. Of these three processes, 25 percent of the energy that leaves the surface of the Earth is through evaporation and condensation.
Which is a component of the global water cycle?
The major physical components of the global water cycle include the evaporation from the ocean and land surfaces, the transport of water vapor by the atmosphere, precipitation onto the ocean and land surfaces, the net atmospheric transport of water from land areas to ocean, and the return flow of fresh water from the land back into the ocean.