Why does a cloud stop the warmth of the Sun on your skin?
When the sun is out it feels warm on your skin. Why, when a cloud comes out and blocks the Sun’s rays, the warmth goes away. The sun is very far from the Earth. How could a cloud block the warmth coming from the sun so far away in space? Is the warmth you feel on your skin due to a photon reaction with your magnetic field?
Hey @bbtesla, welcome to Geekswipe Curiosity.
The warmth from the Sun isn’t due to magnetic field, it’s just infrared radiation. When the Sun shines, it’s beaming out of photons in all wavelengths, including infrared ones that carry heat.
These photons travel millions of kilometers through space, then the Earth’s atmosphere. Here is where clouds matter. A cloud is dense with water droplets and ice crystals that scatter and absorb much of that infrared radiation before it reaches your skin. So when the cloud obscures the sun, it’s not just hidden from view. The actual thermal energy isn’t making it to you anymore. No photons, no warmth.
Again, your magnetic field has nothing to do with it. The sensation of heat is simply your skin absorbing infrared photons and converting that energy into molecular motion, which is warmth. When clouds intercept that stream, the heat vanishes like a paused beam in a solar oven.
Hope this helps.