Energy Balance and the Greenhouse Effect

By Drew Shindell (Guest Author)

Figure 1 - The Dynamic Climate System: What drives climate? Ultimately it's the energy of the Sun, but climate
involves dynamic interactions among Earth's atmosphere, ocean, biomass, rock, and ice. All are represented in this
satellite photo of southern New Zealand. NASA / GSFC / SeaWiFS
Climate is the long-term average of a host of features of the world around us: temperature, pressure, precipitation,
wind speed, cloudiness, etc. Among these, temperature is arguably the most fundamental. It governs the evaporation
that drives the water cycle, it controls cloud formation, and contrasts in temperature create winds. So it makes sense
to begin our understanding of climate change with an exploration of the factors that control temperature.
Let's start with a familiar example. If you put a pot of water on the stove and turn it on, you're adding energy in the
form of heat to the pot, and the pot heats upbut by how much? Not enough to melt, but probably too hot to touch. In
fact, the pot reaches and maintains a precise balance: hot enough to give off the same amount of heat that it's taking
in. Although we're used to thinking that it requires complicated thermostats to regulate temperatures, that's only the
case when the goal is a temperature that differs from the natural balance (as when you crank up the air conditioning
on a hot day, for example). Otherwise, to achieve equilibrium all you have to do is leave the system alone.
The same applies to Earth's climate system, where the heat source is the Sun. Given time to adjust, the Earth warms
up or cools down until the amount of heat given off to space exactly matches the amount of sunlight absorbed by the
planetas the law of conservation of energy requires. This response keeps the Earth and space in what scientists
call energy balance. Consequently, changes in either the incoming or the outgoing energy will affect Earth's
temperature.

The Amount of Energy That Reaches the Earth Varies

As we all know, Earth's major source of energy is the Sun. This energy comes in the form of solar radiation. Two
factors control how much solar radiation Earth receives: the Sun's output, and the distance and orientation of the Sun
and the Earth. Although not constant, the Sun's output is thought to have varied only a very, very small amount
(<0.2%) over the past millennium. Such a small change can alter the Earth's energy balance only slightly, though
even slight variations can cause substantial regional responses. Indeed, decreased solar output during the 15th to
early 18th centuries has been linked to cooler temperatures in some parts of the world at that time. Conversely, a
relatively brighter Sun during medieval times may have led to substantial regional warming and a very slight increase
in global mean temperature during that period.
Another factor is sunspots, dark patches on the Sun that have been observed since the invention of the telescope in
the early 1600s. A fairly regular cycle of sunspots has been observed for about three centuries, and since the 1970s,
satellites have been directly monitoring the Sun's output of radiation. Their measurements show variations in the
number of both bright and dark spots that slightly affect total solar output over a roughly 11-year period. However,
these cycles average out over time. During the last few decades of direct observations, long-term change has been
minimal. If anything, the data suggest a slight decline in solar output that may have pushed the Earth's temperature
down very slightly (<0.1C) during this time. Large variations in solar output are only known to have taken place over
millions of years.
The Earth's orbit also affects climate, but on a very long-term basis. The distance and orientation of the Sun and the
Earth vary over many thousands of years because the Earth's orbit varies slightly (Figure 2). While this variation
means little at century or shorter time scales, it's important for time scales of more than a few thousand years, and
significantly affects very long-term climate changes such as 100,000-year glacial cycles.

Figure 2 - The Sun-Earth Connection: Three main variables affect the distance and orientation of the Sun and the
Earth. (1) Obliquity is how far the Earth's axis tilts from the plane of its orbit around the Sun. (2) Precession
determines which direction the Earth tilts relative to the plane of its orbit around the Sun (and therefore which part of
the Earth is facing the Sun when the orbit brings it closest). (3) Eccentricity is the amount by which Earth's orbit
deviates from a perfect circle into an ellipse. Illustration not to scale. AMNH / NASA

The Amount of Energy the Earth Absorbs Also Varies

Climate is affected not only by how much solar energy reaches Earth, but also by how much energy the surface of the
planet absorbs. This absorption process is governed by two factors:
1.

The absorption capacity of Earth's atmosphere

Sunlight is absorbed primarily by oxygen (O2) and ozone (O3) molecules in the atmosphere. The oxygen
content of the atmosphere has been nearly constant for thousands of years. Although there has been substantial

depletion of the Earth's protective ozone layer in the stratosphere, the amounts of ozone in the lower atmosphere
(where it is a primary component of smog) have increased, so that averaged over the whole globe, the total amount
of sunlight absorbed by ozone has remained almost constant.
2. Earth's reflectivity, or albedo

Changes on the surface of the Earth that increase or diminish its ability to absorb sunlight tend to have a
great effect on how much energy it absorbs. Albedo is the fraction of incoming sunlight that is reflected rather than
absorbed. Much as a black car on a hot day can get too hot to touch while a white car stays cool, changes in our
planet's albedo cause it to warm or cool accordingly. Like white paint, bright clouds, snow, ice and deserts reflect
radiation. In contrast, comparatively dark surfaces like vegetated areas, dark soil, and the open ocean absorb more
heat. That's why changes in land use such as deforestation or desertification alter albedo. Currently, Earth's albedo
is roughly 0.3, meaning that 30% of incoming sunlight is reflected back into space.

Components in the atmosphere also affect albedo. Particulates are emitted by human activities such as
burning fuel, or from natural processes such as windstorms that lift desert dust or sea salt. Once airborne, these
impurities reflect sunlight back to space if they are bright, as most of them are. They can also act as condensation
nuclei for water vapor in the atmosphere, causing clouds to form. This is the basis of cloud-seeding, in which people
attempt to induce rain by adding particulate from aircraft to the atmosphere. It's also why Victorian London had such
severe fogs: massive amounts of soot and sulfur were released by residential and industrial coal burning.
While the interactions between clouds and surface temperature are quite complex, at large scales, particulate
emissions enhance the reflectivity of the planet by adding white clouds. The effect is greatest when clouds form over
dark oceans. In this respect, the Earth's temperature, like a car's, depends on its color.

The Famous "Greenhouse Effect"

Most incoming rays from the Sun are in the form of visible light: short, high-energy wavelengths (Figure 3). Some of
this energy is absorbed by the atmosphere, some is reflected back into space, and some of it reaches the surface of
the Earth. Energy that reaches the surface is absorbed and re-emitted in the form of much lower-energy, longerwavelenght thermal radiation.

Figure 3 - Electromagnetic Spectrum: All objects emit radiation, and the energy of that radiation, or radiant heat, is
proportional to the object's temperature. (In fact, it's the temperature to the fourth power.) Shorter wavelengths carry
more energy, so the very hot Sun emits radiation of much shorter wavelengths than the comparatively cool Earth. The
same process explains why metal heated to white hot (around 5,000C to 6,000C) actually glows, emitting visible
light. Heat coming from a human being only shows up with night-vision goggles that are sensitive to the longer
wavelength infrared emitted by both mammals and the planet itself. This image of the Sun is actually three images
merged into one. Heliophysicists took images of the solar corona at three wavelengths within the invisible UV range.
They assigned a color code (red, yellow, blue) to each image, revealing what solar features, like flares, look like at the
different wavelengths. NASA
However, some of the same gases in the atmosphere that allowed the shortwave visible light to pass through the
atmosphereincluding water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4)absorb longwave radiation, so only
some of the thermal energy escapes back into space. These are known as the greenhouse gases because they act
like the glass panes in a greenhouse. The panes admit visible light but trap the thermal radiation, warming the air
inside. The greenhouse gas molecules then re-emit the radiation they have absorbed out in all directions. Some of the
re-emitted radiation goes back to the surface, where it adds to the energy absorbed by the Earth (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - Greenhouse Effect: Earth's atmosphere keeps much of the Sun's energy from escaping into space. This
process, called the greenhouse effect, keeps the planet warm enough for life to exist. Here's a closer look at how it
works: (1) The atmosphere allows about half of the Sun's heat energy (50%) to reach Earth's surface. (2) About a
third of the Sun's energy (30%) is reflected back into space. (3) The rest of the Sun's energy (20%) is absorbed by
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane. (4) Greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere also absorb and hold some of the heat energy radiating back from Earth's surface. AMNH.
Greenhouse gases are naturally present in the atmosphere, and keep our planet at its current relatively comfortable
temperature. In fact, without this blanket, our planet would be roughly 33C (60F) colder than it is now. That's why
the average temperature of the Moon, which is the same distance from the Sun but lacks an atmosphere, is only
about -18C (0F), compared to Earth's balmy 15C (~60F).

Satellites Enable Us to Track and Record These Processes

The greenhouse gases absorb longwave radiation, but not uniformly at all wavelengths. Orbiting spacecraft enable us
to observe their impact directly, by looking at the change in outgoing radiation as a function of wavelength.
Measurements spanning nearly three decades show unequivocally that the longwave radiation leaving the Earth has

declined at exactly the wavelengths absorbed by carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, while concentrations of
all three of these gases have increased substantially over the same period because of human activity. These satellite
observations are thus a clear fingerprint of the enhancement of the greenhouse effect due to increases in these
greenhouse gases.
The overall effect of adding these gases to the atmosphere is a decrease in the amount of longwave radiation getting
out to space. This pushes the Earth out of energy balance, because more heat comes in than is released. In other
words, adding additional greenhouse gases to those naturally present in the atmosphere requires the planet to warm
up. The Earth's temperature will increase until the amount of longwave outgoing radiation that escapes through the
thickened blanket of greenhouse gases again matches the amount of incoming heat from the Sun.

Related Links
NASA: Climate and Earth Energy Budget
This article, part of NASA Earth Observatory site, explains the concept of radiative equilibrium, the many variables at
that affect Earth energy balance, and the response of the climate system. Illustrated with many maps and diagrams.
UCSD: Global Energy Balance
This online book, published by the National Academy Press in 2001, was meant to present a bipartisan look at the
cloning debate, including animal and human reproductive and therapeutic cloning. Click on the chapter links to access
the text.