Observing and Modeling Earth's Energy Flows

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of Earth’s energy flows and their consequences for the climate. The Earth’s climate as well as planetary climates in general, are broadly controlled by three fundamental parameters: the solar irradiance, the planetary albedo and the planetary emissivity. Space measurements indicate that these three quantities are remarkably stable. A minor decrease in planetary emissivity is consistent with theoretical calculations. This is due to the ongoing increase of atmospheric greenhouse gases making the atmosphere more opaque to long wave terrestrial radiation. As a consequence radiation processes are slightly out of balance as less heat is leaving the Earth in the form of thermal radiation than the incoming amount of heat from the sun. Present space-based systems cannot yet satisfactorily measure this imbalance, but the effect can be inferred from the measurements of the increase of heat in the oceans. Minor amounts of heat are also used to melt ice and to warm the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. 

The book brings to fore the complexity of feedback processes of the Earth’s climate system and in particular the way clouds and aerosols affect the energy balance both directly and indirectly through feed-back loops driven by the dynamics of atmospheric, ocean and land surface processes. The book highlights recent scientific progress as well as remaining challenges.

Previously published in Surveys in Geophysics, Volume 33, Nos. 3-4, 2012

• Climate Change
• Cloud- and Aerosol Processes and Climate
• Earth Radiation Balance
• Solar Radiation and Climate
• Water Vapour and Climate

• International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland

  Lennart Bengtsson, Roger-Maurice Bonnet

• Risk Management Solutions Ltd Peninsular House, London, United Kingdom

  Symeon Koumoutsaris

• Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

  Richard P. Allan

• Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observator World Radiation Centre, Davos, Switzerland

  Claus Fröhlich

• Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany

  Jost Heintzenberg

• Earth Observation Mission Science Division, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

  Paul Ingmann

• Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

  Robert Kandel

• Langley Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, USA

  Norman G. Loeb

• Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) Div. MPO, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine &, Miami, USA

  Brian Soden

• Climate & Global Dynamics, National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA

  Kevin E. Trenberth

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