INTRODUCTION
Water is one of the most precious resources on the planet, as it is required for all living organisms to survive. Oceans hold 97 percent of the earth’s total water from the surface to the atmosphere, while glaciers and icebergs hold the remaining 3%.
The same water has been moving around the world for centuries thanks to recycling, and this process of recycling water has been going on since the beginning of time. The “water cycle” is the process of moving the earth’s water above and below the surface.
Overview of the Water Cycle
The Hydrologic Cycle is the continuous movement of water from the surface to clouds and from clouds to the surface. The sun, air, and a variety of other factors all play a role in the water cycle, which sees water go through all three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. The water cycle is a cycle in which water evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere, cools and condenses in clouds as rain, and then falls back to the surface as precipitation.
Water that falls on the water’s surface after precipitation collects in the form of groundwater, rivers, ponds, lakes, and other bodies of water, which then combine in oceans and evaporate. Because salt is heavy to rise due to its high density, water vapours from the oceans or sea do not contain salt, implying that the water from the oceans or sea is not salty.
Climate Change Effects
The sun plays an important role in most of the steps of the water cycle process, as solar energy drives the water cycle. The effects of evaporation may have caused an increase in atmospheric temperature, making the surface warmer, but the temperature is reduced as a result of evaporation cooling, making the atmosphere cool. This evaporation cooling is accomplished by the evaporation process through oceans, which accounts for 86 percent of global evaporation.
As a result, we can conclude that adding or subtracting heat causes the water cycle to operate continuously. The water cycle includes energy exchange and influences the earth’s climate, as evaporation absorbs energy and cools the environment, and condensation releases energy and cools the environment, keeping the climate and temperature stable. The troposphere is home to most of the water vapours formed in the atmosphere.
The Water Cycle’s Steps
Water is available in very limited quantities all over the world. The water cycle has been transporting this amount of water around the world for centuries.
- The water cycle consists primarily of four steps:
- Evaporation
- Condensation
- Precipitation
- Infiltration and runoff
Evaporation
Evaporation is a crucial process because it involves the transfer of water from the earth’s surface to the atmosphere in the form of water vapours. Water normally evaporates when it reaches its boiling point, which is 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Evaporation is also known as “transpiration,” because it refers to the transfer of water from the minute pores present on the plant’s leaves to the atmosphere in the form of water vapours. As solar energy falls on the earth’s surface, warming it, and the vapours of water present in the ocean move towards the atmosphere due to rising air currents, the process of evaporation cooling cools the atmospheric temperature. Similarly, vapours rising in the sky from plants, trees, wells, underground water, and other sources cool the earth’s surface. This process of directly converting a solid into a gaseous state is known as “sublimation.” Vapours can also be formed through snow or ice without even converting it into water. Strong sunlight, low air pressure, strong wind, low temperature, and low humidity are all necessary for sublimation.
Refrigeration
After the process of converting water into vapours that rise into the sky, the vapours are converted back into liquid form due to an increase in temperature as they come into contact with cool air, cooling the atmosphere. This process of converting vapours back into liquid form is known as condensation. When the air is full of water vapours and ready to be converted back into water droplets, the condensation process begins. When the temperature drops below 0°F, the water vapours turn into liquid and combine to form a tiny droplet of water, which then merges to form a larger droplet of water.
When a droplet is large enough to cross the updraft of a cloud formed by water vapours, the droplets of water tend to move out of the cloud and fall to the earth’s surface due to gravity. This process of water droplets falling to the earth’s surface is known as precipitation. If these merged droplets are exposed to high air pressure, they may crystallise or freeze, resulting in solid forms such as ice, snow, and other substances falling to the earth’s surface. If the conditions are between snow and rain, the droplets will fall with icy cold, forming a half-frozen water droplet known as sleet.
The amount of precipitation
After condensation, water vapours condense into water droplets, which float around the world inside clouds. These clouds collide due to wind movement, resulting in rain, and then fall back on the earth’s surface in the form of rain, hail, snow, or sleet, depending on the atmospheric temperature. This process of water droplets falling back on the earth’s surface is known as “precipitation.” When the air can no longer hold any more water droplets, precipitation occurs.
The precipitation that falls in the form of water can fall in a variety of places for further evaporation, such as some may return to the atmosphere through evaporation, some may evaporate through the surface of leaves and plants, some may reach water bodies and flow directly to the oceans to evaporate, and some may penetrate the soil through infiltration to streams and groundwater. ‘Spring’ refers to the water found near volcanoes or other thermal energy sources.
Infiltration and runoff
Runoff occurs when water falls and settles in bodies of water such as lakes, oceans, wells, and land. If the droplets fall into the snow or ice, the lakes and oceans melt and become water. This increases the flow of water in lakes and rivers, potentially causing flooding. This is why, in general, floods occur more frequently in the spring and summer than in the winter.
The water cycle is a non-stop cyclic process with no beginning or end. The main benefit of this cycle is that no water is lost, and the water in the oceans and seas is always levelled, and there are clouds in the sky at all times.
Conclusion
The continuous circulation of water in the earth-atmosphere system is described by the water cycle, also known as the hydrological cycle. The water cycle is made up of many processes, but the most important ones are evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. The total amount of water in the cycle remains constant, but the distribution process changes on a regular basis. Although the mass of water on the earth’s surface remains constant over time, the partitioning of water into major reservoirs of ice, fresh, saline, and atmospheric water changes as a result of various water cycle processes. The cycle also includes an energy exchange that results in a temperature change.