Version 1
: Received: 22 November 2018 / Approved: 27 November 2018 / Online: 27 November 2018 (03:47:23 CET)
How to cite:
Zagoni, M. Deducing Earth’s Global Energy Flows from a Simple Greenhouse Model. Preprints2018, 2018110597. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0597.v1
Zagoni, M. Deducing Earth’s Global Energy Flows from a Simple Greenhouse Model. Preprints 2018, 2018110597. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0597.v1
Zagoni, M. Deducing Earth’s Global Energy Flows from a Simple Greenhouse Model. Preprints2018, 2018110597. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0597.v1
APA Style
Zagoni, M. (2018). Deducing Earth’s Global Energy Flows from a Simple Greenhouse Model. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0597.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Zagoni, M. 2018 "Deducing Earth’s Global Energy Flows from a Simple Greenhouse Model" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0597.v1
Abstract
Earth atmosphere is almost opaque in the infrared: about 374 W/m2 is absorbed by the atmosphere out of 396 W/m2 surface upward longwave radiation, and only about 22 W/m2 leaves the system unabsorbed in the atmospheric window. This makes rise to the idea to approximate the annual global mean energy flow system from a simple idealized greenhouse model, where the surface is surrounded by a single-layer shortwave (SW) transparent, longwave (LW) opaque, non-turbulent atmosphere. The energy flows in this geometry can be described by elementary arithmetic relationships. Starting from this model, the realistic Earth’s atmosphere can be achieved by introducing partial atmospheric SW opacity, partial atmospheric LW transparency and turbulent fluxes during the course of the deduction. The resulted global mean energy flow system is then compared to several data sets such as satellite observations from the CERES mission; estimates using direct surface observations and climate models; global energy and water cycle assessments; and independent detailed clear-sky radiative transfer computations. We find that the deduction from this idealized model approximates the real values in Earth energy budget with reasonable accuracy: the deduced fluxes and the observed ones are consistent within the acknowledged error of observations; while fundamental features of the initial geometry like special ratios and definite relationships between the fluxes are preserved.
Keywords
global energy budget; simple greenhouse model; infrared-opaque limit
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science and Meteorology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
