Earth's energy budget

Earth's energy budget accounts for energy entering, leaving, and accumulating in the Earth system. It is governed chiefly by absorbed sunlight and outgoing thermal radiation.

Solar irradiance: The power per unit area received from the Sun at a given distance. It sets the incoming energy available to the Earth system.
Earth Radiation Budget Experiment: A satellite program that measured Earth's reflected sunlight and emitted infrared radiation. Its observations improved estimates of the planet's radiation flows.
Radiative forcing: A change in Earth's net radiative flux caused by a perturbation to the climate system. Forcing identifies disturbances that shift the budget away from balance.
Global warming: The long-term rise in Earth's average surface temperature, driven primarily by human activities. Persistent energy gains raise global temperatures as the system adjusts.
Radiative equilibrium: A state in which absorbed and emitted radiation balance for a system. It is the idealized balance that Earth's observed energy imbalance departs from.
Planetary albedo: The fraction of incoming solar radiation reflected by a planet and its atmosphere. Reflected sunlight leaves without warming the Earth system.
CERES: A NASA satellite instrument program measuring Earth's reflected solar and emitted thermal radiation. Its measurements track changes in the top-of-atmosphere energy budget.
Stefan–Boltzmann law: The law stating that a body's emitted thermal radiation per area scales with temperature to the fourth power. It links Earth's temperature to the strength of its thermal emissions.
Climate feedback: A process that amplifies or reduces an initial climate change. Feedbacks alter how much the budget imbalance changes temperature.
Solar cycle: The Sun's roughly 11-year cycle of changing magnetic activity and sunspot numbers. Its modest irradiance variations contrast with the persistent modern energy gain.

Linked from 25 pages