Does an solar eclipse cool the earth?
Question:
Answer:
Radiant heat (the kind you feel warming in front of a fire) would be blocked briefly in the area affected by the eclipse. You could experiment with this by standing in front of a radiant heat source (any thing not giving heat by convection [warm air movement like from a forced air furnace] or conduction [direct or indirect physical contact like heat traveling up a metal spoon in a pan of boiling water]) and then blocking part of your body with another object (like a book or piece of cardboard). You will see the area blocked is not heated. The eclipse works the same way, but the area blocked is on a much smaller scale.
Yes, but only by an immeasureable amount. The Sun's only blocked for a few minutes.
I wouldn't say it cools the earth. The earth's temperature is not that highly coupled that you would notice a marked change. Also, oceans have high heat capacities compared to the atmosphere. Think about cloud cover. It only cools the area that is blocked and you don't feel the infrared heat.
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