What is Evaporation?
Evaporation is the conversion of liquid water to the vapour form.
● Evaporation process
The strong heat of the sun helps in evaporation of water from all the water bodies – the seas, oceans, rivers, lakes and others. Similarly, plants lose water in the form of vapour from the surfaces of the leaves through a simple transpiration process.
What is Condensation?
Condensation is the conversion of water vapour into liquid form.
● Condensation process
Condensation, which is the second step in the water cycle, gives rise to the formation of clouds. It occurs as the evaporated water rises higher in the atmosphere and due to the colder temperature, the vapour results in the formation of water droplets.
What is Precipitation?
Precipitation results in water drops falling down on the earth’s surface from the clouds.
● Precipitation process
Once clouds are formed, they get saturated and are filled with too many water droplets. They then try releasing the water content in the form of ice crystals or liquid water drops.
Now that we know the three processes, let us understand how they work together in the water cycle.
Working of the water cycle
The first step of the water cycle is the evaporation, where the water from the earth’s surface evaporates due to the sun’s heat. The evaporated water rises up and reaches the atmospheric layer where the temperatures are very cold. The colder temperature causes condensation of the vapour, converting it into water droplets. This results in the formation of clouds. Now when the clouds get saturated with water droplets, they precipitate. That means the clouds pour water on the earth’s surface in the form of rain, snow or hail. Thus, the water bodies get filled with water again; and the water that percolates in the ground fills the underground source of water as well. This is how water is brought back to the earth’s surface.