Earth’s «Theoretical» Temperature – What if?

Let’s take a look at some «what if?» scenarios to see how Earth’s «theoretical» temperature would change if the amount of solar energy we receive was altered or if our planet’s albedo changed. The interactive below allows you to adjust these two parameters and see how Earth’s «theoretical» temperature would respond. Drag the sliders for «Sun’s brightness» and for «Earth’s albedo» to alter those values, and see how Earth’s temperature changes in as a result. The interactive does the same calculation we just walked through above to generate the temperature it reports. There are some suggestions below of scenarios to try out. (Note: the popup menu for changing the «Sun’s brightness» values between W/m2 and percent isn’t working quite yet; please ignore that!)

Categories and tags of the game : Astronomy, Educational, Interactive, Single Player, Space