Climate Change: A Guide For Teachers Of All Disciplines

Assignment 1

This assignment is designed to help understand the role that the sun plays in determining
the surface temperature of planets. In lecture, you would have seen that to the first order
planetary surface temperatures can be determined based on the flux of energy received by
a planet (which is related to its distance from the sun). We will verify this in this
assignment.

Consider the following data regarding planets of our solar system:

Distance from Sun Solar energy flux Observed surface temp
6 2
(in units of10 Km) (Watts/m ) (degrees Kelvin)

Mercury 58 2290 440

Venus 108 660 730
Earth 150 342 287
Mars 228 148 218
Jupiter 778.5 50.5 166
Saturn 1430 14.9 134
Uranus 2870 3.71 76
Neptune 4500 1.51 72

1. Calculate the temperature of the inner planets in degrees C.

Hint: Convert degrees Kelvin to degrees C

2. The relationship between the solar energy flux and surface temperature is given
by the Stefan-Boltzmann Law for black-bodies as

F = σ T4,
where F is the solar energy flux (in W/m2), T is the surface temperature (in °K)
and σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant 5.67x 10-8 W m-2 K-4

Calculate the surface temperatures of the planets, assuming that they behave like
blackbodies.

Hint: For each planet calculate the surface temperature as T =(F/ σ)^(1/4)

Note that for almost all planets (except one) the observed and calculated surface
temperatures are similar showing that to the first order the surface temperatures of
planets are determined by the flux of energy received from the Sun.

3. Which of the planets is clearly anomalous in terms of its surface temperature? Is

it too hot or too cold compared to the expectation one derived from the surface
temperature of the other inner planets?