The Effects of Vaporization on Water

Heat of Vaporization

• Heat of vaporization is the energy needed to change one gram of liquid into a gaseous state at the boiling point. The boiling point is the temperature at which saturated vapor pressure of liquid is comparable to the surrounding atmospheric pressure. Vapor becomes saturated when there are as many molecules returning as there are those escaping from a liquid. The pressure of this vapor is called saturated vapor pressure.

Benefits

• There are beneficial outcomes to water's large heat of evaporation or the heat that is required to evaporate a gram of water. The heat that evaporates sweat on your skin removes heat from your body, which makes you cooler. The heat in the air evaporates water from, for instance, a lake and from leaf surfaces, which cools the air.

  Water vapor changes from gas to liquid at night, when the temperatures are cooler, and this puts heat back into the air, making it warmer than it would be if this didn't occur, according to Worsleyschool.net. Heat of fusion and vaporization of water combined warm the air at night and cool the air during the day, which results in very little difference in nighttime and daytime temperatures.

Climate

• Fog, clouds and mist are liquid water, not water vapor. Water vapor is the gaseous state not the liquid or solid (ice) state of water. Without water vapor the climate would be significantly altered because rain, snow and clouds require water vapor to form. Every bit of water vapor that evaporates eventually comes back in the form of precipitation.

What Happens

• Heat is absorbed when liquid water evaporates and turns into vapor and this

  helps cool the earth's surface. When the vapor condenses and creates cloud water this is called latent head of condensation. This compels the updrafts in clouds and precipitation systems. Even more water vapor is then condensed into clouds and more precipitation occurs. Water vapor also helps keep the earth warm, which supports life. In fact, water vapor is the most critical greenhouse gas.

Storage

• Heat is stored in water when it isn't needed and then heat is released from the water when it is needed to warm the environment. Deserts are so brutally hot in part because there aren't any bodies of water or transpiring plants that provide heat storage.