New energy budget for Earth

Poor Debater · Nov 19, 2012

From Wild et. al. 2012 (Climate Dynamics DOI 10.1007/s00382-012-1569-

In the framework of the global energy balance, the radiative energy exchanges between Sun, Earth and space are now accurately quantiﬁed from new satellite missions. Much less is known about the magnitude of the energy ﬂows within the climate system and at the Earth surface, which cannot be directly measured by satellites. In addition to satellite observations, here we make extensive use of the growing number of surface observations to constrain the global energy balance not only from space, but also from the surface. We combine these observations with the latest modeling efforts performed for the 5th IPCC assessment report to infer best estimates for the global mean surface radiative components. Our analyses favor global mean downward surface solar and thermal radiation values near 185 and 342 Wm-2, respectively, which are most compatible with surface observations. Combined with an estimated surface absorbed solar radiation and thermal emission of 161 and 397 Wm-2, respectively, this leaves 106 Wm-2 of surface net radiation available globally for distribution amongst the non-radiative surface energy balance components. The climate models overestimate the downward solar and underestimate the downward thermal radiation, thereby simulating nevertheless an adequate global mean surface net radiation by error compensation. This also suggests that, globally, the simulated surface sensible and latent heat ﬂuxes, around 20 and 85 Wm-2 on average, state realistic values. The ﬁndings of this study are compiled into a new global energy balance diagram, which may be able to reconcile currently disputed inconsistencies between energy and water cycle estimates.
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The diagram above is the lastest-and-greatest improvement on a similar (often-used) diagram from Trenberth 1997. Numbers in parenthesis are uncertainty ranges.

Poor Debater · Nov 19, 2012

Note that the size of the atmospheric infrared window is not quantified in this diagram. Kiehl & Trenberth 1997 put it at 40.

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New energy budget for Earth

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New energy budget for Earth

Poor Debater New Member

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