Insolation in the atmosphere?
918513
Heat transfer in the Earth's atmosphere is dominated by radiation effects, rather than thermal conduction or convection.\n\nIt's complicated, but on average the Earth's surface is a few tens of degrees warmer than the surface of the Moon, which receives the same amount of sunlight, and of course has no atmosphere.
890409
That it has an atmosphere that retains the sun's energy.
729148
Our atmosphere -- the gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth -- is composed of several gases, primarily nitrogen, oxygen, argon and carbon dioxide. Water vapor and minute bits of dust, salt and clay-silicate particles swirl about in the mixture.\nThe atmosphere has four vertical layers that radiate from Earth and vary by temperature and composition. Proceeding from the ground outward, they are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere.\n\n\nAll of the “optical phenomena” – halos, sun dogs, sun pillars, coronas and rainbows – are produced at specific levels in the troposphere, which extends from the surface up to about 12 kilometers, eight miles or 42,000 feet depending on which measuring stick you pick. Here, the temperature decreases rapidly with altitude – averaging 59°F at the surface and a right chilly -69°F at 11 km. Commercial jets fly in the upper reaches of the troposphere.\n\n\nHigh-level cirrus clouds form in extremely cold air where water vapor condenses on tiny dust and salt particles to form ice \ncrystals.\nHence these are responsible for various phenomena circles aroound light emitting/reflecting bodies on the sky, and the rings are formed depending upon how the light gets scattered and the colours also depend on that.\nVR
9497
The interior of the Earth reaches temperatures of 5650 ± 600 kelvins [3] [4]. The planet's internal heat was originally generated during its accretion (see gravitational binding energy), and since then additional heat has continued to be generated by the decay of radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, and potassium. The heat flow from the interior to the surface is only 1/20,000 as great as the energy received from the Sun.\n\n5650 Kelvin = 5377 Celsius = 9710 Fahrenheit\n\nThe Sun's temperature:\nSurface temperature  5780 K\nTemperature of corona  5 MK\nCore temperature  ~13.6 MK
493064
The core temperature of the sun is:\n15,600,000 K.\n\n[Just for information: Surface temperature is: 5800 K]
278956
This has been asked and answered many times before:\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=Amylv82zdJRUVkmYew.javjpy6IX?p=temperature+of+the+sun
814462
The sea, air, and land are all warmed by radiation (light, infrared, etc) from the sun during the day.  The earth also gives off radiation (infrared) all the time.  During the daytime the radiation from the sun is greater than the radiation given off by the earth's surface so the surface warms up.  At night, no radiation from the sun, but the earth is still radiating infrared, so it cools off.
813508
The temperature of the sun varies depending on proximity to the surface.  The core temperature can be more than 13 million degrees Celcius.  The corona is only about 5 million degrees Celcius.  As a large ball of plasma fusing gases together, the sun does not have an atmosphere in the usual sense of the word.
296845
Sunlight is a particle.
387707
Temperature decreases w/ height as you move up through the troposphere b/c of a decrease in air pressure.\n\nAir pressure steadily declines as you move up b/c there is less gravity. Since gravity acts on everything that has mass, including air, it holds most of the earth's air close to the ground. Air acts as an insulator or blanket, absorbing long wave radiation reradiated from the earth. When you move upward away from the surface, the air thins out. There is less air to hold heat.\n\nHowever, once you leave the troposphere, you enter the stratosphere. Here the temps steadily increase due to the presence of the ozone layer. The ozone traps heat.\n\nAs you move away from the stratosphere you will enter the mesosphere where temps decrease again due to less air & movement away from the ozone layer.\n\nAs you go even higher & enter the Thermosphere, the temps increase again b/c solar radiation is so intense that the few air particles that are present are super heated. The chances of being burned are slight to none b/c the air particles are few & far between. After all that is what is holding the actual heat.
61737
Weather.com is a really good site(I use it too)\n\nWeather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena that can occur in the atmosphere of a planet. The term is normally taken to mean the activity of these phenomena over short periods of time, usually no more than a few days in length. Average atmospheric conditions over significantly longer periods are known as climate. Usage of the two terms often overlaps and the concepts are obviously very closely related.\n\nWeather is driven by the different amounts of energy received from the Sun on different parts of the planet. Because of a planet's curvature, sunlight is incident at different angles at different latitudes (higher latitude -> lower angle of incidence -> less heating). Different types of surface (e.g. ocean, forest, ice) have different properties of reflectivity (albedo) and absorb differing amounts of energy. It is mainly due to these two factors that the surface is heated to different extents.\n\nThese surface temperature differences cause vertical wind currents as the hot surface heats the air directly above it. This hot air expands and rises lowering the air pressure and drawing colder air into its place, which is in turn heated and rises and so on. When the hot air later cools it shrinks and sinks lower, increasing air pressure and displacing the air already below it. Horizontal wind currents are formed at the boundaries between differentially heated areas and can be exacerbated by the presence of sloped surfaces. The simple systems thus formed can then display emergent behaviour to produce more complex systems and thus all other weather phenomena. A large scale example of this process can be seen in the Hadley cell and other forms of atmospheric circulation, a smaller scale example would be coastal breezes.\n\nThe only two fundamental causes of weather are thus surface temperature, and to a lesser extent, elevation.\n\nAny precession in a planet's orbit will affect the amount of energy received at a particular spot throughout the year. This effect causes seasons and may influence long term weather patterns.
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On the vernal equinox, the sun is directly overhead the Earth's equator at local noon, and we are told that the insolation under those conditions is 1368 W/m^2.\n\nAt latitudes other than the equator, the solar energy per unit area is decreased by a factor of cos(L), where L is the latitude.  This is called the "projection effect".  At 40 degrees latitude, the incoming solar energy per unit area is therefore:\n\n1368 W/m^2 * cos(40 deg) = 1368 W/m^2 * 0.766 = 1048 W/m^2.\n\nI'm assuming the question is asking how long it would take to bring the water to a boil, not how long it would take to completely boil away the water.\n\nIn either case, you are missing a key bit of information necessary to answer the question:  the initial temperature of the water.  Let's assume that temperature is T.  I'll also assume that you are located as sea level, so the boiling point of the water is 100 C.\n\nThe specific heat capacity of water is 4.1855 J/(g*degC), and the density of water is ~1.00 gm/cm^3, so to bring one liter of water from temperature T to 100 C requires:\n\nE = 4.1855 J/(g*degC) * 1000 cm^3 * 1 gm/cm^3 * (100 degC - T) \nE = 4.1855*10^3 J/degC  * (100 degC - T)\n\nWe have a collector with a 1 m^2 surface area, so it supplies 1048 W = 1048 J/sec at 40 degrees latitude, all of which we are to assume goes into heating the water.\n\nWith these assumptions, it would take:\n\nt = [4.1855*10^3 J/degC  * (100 degC - T)]/(1048 J/sec)\n\nseconds to bring the water to a boil.\n\nFor instance, if T = 25 C, t = 299.54 sec ~= 5 minutes to bring the water to a boil.
141597
If there was no sunshine and no vertical air motion, cold air would settle to the surface, and temperature would increase going up in the atmosphere (and we'd all be dead soon ;) ). Because the ground is always radiating away heat (though often receiving more during daytime from the sun), there is a tendency for that to occur. Note the polar regions for example - during winter there is a semi-permanent temperature inversion (increase of temperature with altitude).\n\n2 things which counter the tendency for inversion are solar heating and vertical air motion.\n\nSunshine heats the ground, heat is conducted to air directly above the ground, and convection transports it up into the atmosphere. Cooling/heating of air by radiation is a slower process, so heat builds as spring and summer progress (at mid & high latitiudes) - especially in the lower atmosphere.\n\nAir moving vertically in the atmosphere (up or down) does so at the adiabatic lapse rate, which is 10 °C per km for dry air and less for saturated air (varies depending with temperature - averages about 6-7°C per km). Rising air cools at that rate, and subsiding air heats at the rate. Thus vertical air motions act to heat the lower atmosphere and cool the higher.\n\nThe combined effect of those, as a few people mentioned, is that temperature on the average decreases with altitude in the troposphere - at a rate of 6.5 °C per km (3.6 °F per 1000 ft.). Yet the lapse rate varies depending on conditions. Air during a clear night normally increases directly above the surface, strong inversions may occur during winter and ahead of warm fronts, and air can decrease at the dry adiabatic rate or briefly greater during a warm, sunny spring day. Etc.
1018347
The surface of the Sun, called the photosphere, is at a temperature of about 5800 Kelvin/ 5 526 degree Celsius/ 9 980 Fahrenheit.\n\n\nErm guys, the lithosphere is the brittle uppermost shell of the earth, not the sun.  *just to clarify out things a bit*
749690
over 400 °C.Thermal inertia and the transfer of heat by winds in the lower atmosphere mean that the temperature of Venus' surface does not vary significantly between the night and day sides, despite the planet's extremely slow rotation. Winds at the surface are slow, moving at a few kilometers per hour, but because of the high density of the atmosphere at Venus' surface, they exert a significant amount of force against obstructions, and transport dust and small stones across the surface.\nclick here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus#Atmosphere\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Venus
224493
Energy. That is the concern over the greenhouse effect, that energy will be trapped in the atmosphere raising temperatures. The average surface temperature of the earth would be -18 degrees zero without a greenhouse effect and 72 degrees zero without a biosphere which counteracts the Greenhouse effect.
374457
yes - sunlight penetrates through the atmosphere and in converted to infrared radiation, which is trapped by gases in the atmosphere such as CO2, CH4 and N2O.