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Earth's energy budget
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Earth's energy budget
Earth's energy budget (or Earth's energy balance) is the balance between the energy that Earth receives from the Sun and the energy the Earth loses back into outer space. Smaller energy sources, such as Earth's internal heat, are taken into consideration, but make a tiny contribution compared to solar energy. The energy budget also takes into account how energy moves through the climate system. The Sun heats the equatorial tropics more than the polar regions. Therefore, the amount of solar irradiance received by a certain region is unevenly distributed. As the energy seeks equilibrium across the planet, it drives interactions in Earth's climate system, i.e., Earth's water, ice, atmosphere, rocky crust, and all living things. The result is Earth's climate.
Earth's energy budget depends on many factors, such as atmospheric aerosols, greenhouse gases, surface albedo, clouds, and land use patterns. When the incoming and outgoing energy fluxes are in balance, Earth is in radiative equilibrium and the climate system will be relatively stable. Global warming occurs when earth receives more energy than it gives back to space, and global cooling takes place when the outgoing energy is greater.
Multiple types of measurements and observations show a warming imbalance since at least year 1970. The rate of heating from this human-caused event is without precedent. The main origin of changes in the Earth's energy is from human-induced changes in the composition of the atmosphere. During 2005 to 2019 the Earth's energy imbalance (EEI) averaged about 460 TW or globally 0.90±0.15 W/m2.
It takes time for any changes in the energy budget to result in any significant changes in the global surface temperature. This is due to the thermal inertia of the oceans, land and cryosphere. Most climate models make accurate calculations of this inertia, energy flows and storage amounts.
Earth's energy budget includes the "major energy flows of relevance for the climate system". These are "the top-of-atmosphere energy budget; the surface energy budget; changes in the global energy inventory and internal flows of energy within the climate system".
In spite of the enormous transfers of energy into and from the Earth, it maintains a relatively constant temperature because, as a whole, there is little net gain or loss: Earth emits via atmospheric and terrestrial radiation (shifted to longer electromagnetic wavelengths) to space about the same amount of energy as it receives via solar insolation (all forms of electromagnetic radiation).
The main origin of changes in the Earth's energy is from human-induced changes in the composition of the atmosphere, amounting to about 460 TW or globally 0.90±0.15 W/m2.
The total amount of energy received per second at the top of Earth's atmosphere (TOA) is measured in watts and is given by the solar constant times the cross-sectional area of the Earth corresponded to the radiation. Because the surface area of a sphere is four times the cross-sectional area of a sphere (i.e. the area of a circle), the globally and yearly averaged TOA flux is one quarter of the solar constant and so is approximately 340 watts per square meter (W/m2). Since the absorption varies with location as well as with diurnal, seasonal and annual variations, the numbers quoted are multi-year averages obtained from multiple satellite measurements.
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Earth's energy budget
Earth's energy budget (or Earth's energy balance) is the balance between the energy that Earth receives from the Sun and the energy the Earth loses back into outer space. Smaller energy sources, such as Earth's internal heat, are taken into consideration, but make a tiny contribution compared to solar energy. The energy budget also takes into account how energy moves through the climate system. The Sun heats the equatorial tropics more than the polar regions. Therefore, the amount of solar irradiance received by a certain region is unevenly distributed. As the energy seeks equilibrium across the planet, it drives interactions in Earth's climate system, i.e., Earth's water, ice, atmosphere, rocky crust, and all living things. The result is Earth's climate.
Earth's energy budget depends on many factors, such as atmospheric aerosols, greenhouse gases, surface albedo, clouds, and land use patterns. When the incoming and outgoing energy fluxes are in balance, Earth is in radiative equilibrium and the climate system will be relatively stable. Global warming occurs when earth receives more energy than it gives back to space, and global cooling takes place when the outgoing energy is greater.
Multiple types of measurements and observations show a warming imbalance since at least year 1970. The rate of heating from this human-caused event is without precedent. The main origin of changes in the Earth's energy is from human-induced changes in the composition of the atmosphere. During 2005 to 2019 the Earth's energy imbalance (EEI) averaged about 460 TW or globally 0.90±0.15 W/m2.
It takes time for any changes in the energy budget to result in any significant changes in the global surface temperature. This is due to the thermal inertia of the oceans, land and cryosphere. Most climate models make accurate calculations of this inertia, energy flows and storage amounts.
Earth's energy budget includes the "major energy flows of relevance for the climate system". These are "the top-of-atmosphere energy budget; the surface energy budget; changes in the global energy inventory and internal flows of energy within the climate system".
In spite of the enormous transfers of energy into and from the Earth, it maintains a relatively constant temperature because, as a whole, there is little net gain or loss: Earth emits via atmospheric and terrestrial radiation (shifted to longer electromagnetic wavelengths) to space about the same amount of energy as it receives via solar insolation (all forms of electromagnetic radiation).
The main origin of changes in the Earth's energy is from human-induced changes in the composition of the atmosphere, amounting to about 460 TW or globally 0.90±0.15 W/m2.
The total amount of energy received per second at the top of Earth's atmosphere (TOA) is measured in watts and is given by the solar constant times the cross-sectional area of the Earth corresponded to the radiation. Because the surface area of a sphere is four times the cross-sectional area of a sphere (i.e. the area of a circle), the globally and yearly averaged TOA flux is one quarter of the solar constant and so is approximately 340 watts per square meter (W/m2). Since the absorption varies with location as well as with diurnal, seasonal and annual variations, the numbers quoted are multi-year averages obtained from multiple satellite measurements.
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