How does the absorption of energy from the suns rays differ for land and for oceans?
Absorption of radiation differs in that land heats faster and to greater extremes that the oceans do. This is caused by three factors. First of all water has a much greater specific heat than land does. This means that it take more energy to change the temperature of any give unit of water by 1°C than it does for land. Second, land is opaque. So, the Suns rays really only heat the surface of the land. Water, on the other hand is transparent. So, the Suns rays penetrate to a significantly greater depth thus heating a much greater volume. Finally, surface waters tend to mix with waters from deeper down. This helps to further distribute the heat. Obviously land does not circulate. So, all of these factors contribute to the way in which oceans warm more slowly and to less extremes than land does.
