When we turn our face towards the sun on a day with clear skies: Is the heat we feel on our skin actual heat radiation from the surface of the sun or do we just feel the warmth of the molecules in our atmosphere which have been “warmed” by radiation from the upper atmosphere?
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Well, it’s kind of like when you have a big blanket that covers you on a cold day. The blanket is like the air around us and the sun is like a giant heater that warms up the blanket. When the blanket gets warm, you feel warm too, even though you’re not touching the heater.
That’s kind of how it is with the sun and the air around us. The sun sends heat to the air, and then the air sends the heat to us, making us feel warm on our skin. So, when we turn our face towards the sun, we feel the warmth of the air that has been warmed up by the sun, not the actual heat coming directly from the surface of the sun.
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