Climate and Earth’s Energy Flows

Under equilibrium conditions, climate can be viewed in simple terms as the average energy pathways that incoming solar radiation takes before exiting the system in order to maintain overall energy balance. Similarly, future climate change will ultimately be determined by how the Earth’s energy balan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Surveys in geophysics 2012-07, Vol.33 (3-4), p.351-357
Main Author: Palmer, Matthew D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Astronomy
Atmospheric circulation
Climate
Climate change
Earth
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Energy balance
Exact sciences and technology
Geophysics
Geophysics/Geodesy
Greenhouse gases
Internal geophysics
Observations and Techniques
Ocean circulation
Solar energy
Solar radiation
Surface temperature
Ultraviolet radiation
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Summary:Under equilibrium conditions, climate can be viewed in simple terms as the average energy pathways that incoming solar radiation takes before exiting the system in order to maintain overall energy balance. Similarly, future climate change will ultimately be determined by how the Earth’s energy balance and average energy pathways change in response to external radiative forcings, such as anthropogenic greenhouse gases, and internal redistributions. Here, we give an overview of climate research in the context of Earth’s energy flows and make the case for improved observations of total energy as a more physically robust metric of climate change than the commonly used surface temperature record.
ISSN:0169-3298
1573-0956
DOI:10.1007/s10712-011-9165-8