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EARTH'S THERMAL BALANCE

THE CLIMATE SYSTEM

The climate is also affected by forces outside

this system :radiation from the sun,earth's
radiation ,sun earth's geometry ,and the earth's
slowly changing orbit. Over long the earth either
warms or cools until a new balance is achieved.
Most of the radiations emitted from the earth's
surface doesn't escape immediately into space
because of presence of the green house gases
and clouds in atmosphere that absorb and re—
emit infrared radiations.

Some parts of the earth's surface receive more

radiation than others . The tropics got the most,
and actually gain more energy than they lose in
space . The mid. latitudes gets low.
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FACTORS AFFECTING THE EARTH’S

SURFACE TEMPERATURE

 Season

o Angle of sun, day length

o Topography

o Slope, aspect

o Shading/scattering

o Clouds, smoke, haze, vegetation

o Absorption

o Clouds, water vapor

 Surface properties

SURFACE HEAT EXCHANGE

o Solar radiation: heats air directly 0.5-1 F/day

(depending on water vapor)

o Conduction: Air heated (or cooled) through

contact with Earth’s surface

o Convection: warm air rises, cooler air falls

(mixing)

o Cooling at night: Radiation, conduction,

convection
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HEATING AND COOLING IN DIFFERENT

MATERIALS

Water – high conductance

High heat capacity

High transparency (heat transferred

To deeper layers)

Dark dry soil – low conductance,

(opaque) high absorption,

Low heat capacity

Opaque (concentrates heat

Near surface)

Vegetation – high reflectance

Dark surfaces – high absorption

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LONGWAVE AND SHORTWAVE RADIATION

Shortwave radiation (visible light) contains a lot

of energy; longwave radiation (infrared light)
contains less energy than shortwave radiation
(shortwave radiation has a shorter wavelength
than longwave radiation). Solar energy enters
our atmosphere as shortwave radiation in the
form of ultraviolet (UV) rays (the ones that give
us sunburn) and visible light. The sun emits
shortwave radiation because it is extremely hot
and has a lot of energy to give off. Once in the
Earth’s atmosphere, clouds and the surface
absorb the solar energy. The ground heats up
and re-emits energy as longwave radiation in
the form of infrared rays. Earth emits longwave
radiation because Earth is cooler than the sun
and has less energy available to give off.

Everything that has a temperature gives off

electromagnetic radiation (light). The sun is
extremely hot and has a lot of energy to give, so
it gives off shortwave radiation because
shortwave radiation contains higher amounts of
energy The earth is much cooler, but still emits
radiation. Earth’s radiation is emitted as
longwave because longwave radiation contains a
smaller amount of energy.
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HEAT BALANCE AT THE SURFACE

The incoming solar radiation on a horizontal

surface at the top of the atmosphere is about
342wm-2,with roughly 30%of this being reflected
back in space. An analysis of the earth's global
heat balance shows that more than 70% of the
reflection takes place in the atmosphere , mainly
because of the presence of the presence of
clouds and aerosols remaining 30% is reflected
by the surface, which absorb 2.5 times more
solar energy than the whole atmosphere. This
important property of the system explains the
major characteristics of the earth's atmosphere,
including the vertical temp. Profile and the llarge
scale circulation of the atmosphere.

The outgoing longwave radiation require to

balance the earth's budget at the top of the
atmosphere is mainly emitted by the atmosphere
and clouds. Among the 396Wm-2 emitted by the
surface only 40Wm-2 can exist the climate
system directly. The large majority of surface
longwave radiation is absorbed by the
atmospheric greenhouse and re-emitted towards
the surface when the downward longwave
radiation flux(333wm-2) becomes the largest term
in the surface heat balance.
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HEAT BUDGET

Most of the solar energy received at the earth's

surface at the form of short wave solar radiation
there it is converted into heat by the passage of
absorption. It is also true that through longwave
terrestrial radiation amount of energy stored as
fossil fuels. The earth's atmosphere receives on
an average 30cal, of heat per sq cm per
minute. But there exist a balance between the
amount of incoming solar radiation and the
amount of terrestrial radiation returned to
space. In the absence of such a balance the
earth could be getting progressively colder and
progressively warmer. This balance between
the isolation received from the sun and the
outgoing terrestrial radiation is known as earth
heat budget.
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LAMBERT’S COSINE LAW

The flux density radiation on the horizontal is a

function of the angle between the surface normal
and the direction of the ray is defined by
Lambert’s Cosine Law:

R(i) = R cos(𝛾) R sin(β)

The ratio between the flux density of radiation on the

horizontal surface to the flux density normal to the
incoming radiation is related to the ratios of the areas
of the beam cross section (Abeam) and the projected
horizontal area (Ahorizontal).
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