Energy Budget
Saturday, 29. December 2007, 12:00:00
Energy Budget
For any balanced budget, what comes in must equal what goes out. In the case of planets orbiting the Sun, this means that the incoming solar radiation must equal the outgoing radiation. Otherwise, the planet will either get hotter or cooler. Balancing the global energy budget is a fundamental aspect of the climate system.
For any balanced budget, what comes in must equal what goes out. In the case of planets orbiting the Sun, this means that the incoming solar radiation must equal the outgoing radiation. Otherwise, the planet will either get hotter or cooler. Balancing the global energy budget is a fundamental aspect of the climate system.
Energy Budget
For any balanced budget, what comes in must equal what goes out. In the case of planets orbiting the Sun, this means that the incoming solar radiation must equal the outgoing radiation. Otherwise, the planet will either get hotter or cooler. Balancing the global energy budget is a fundamental aspect of the climate system.
Also worth noting is Ehrlich's introduction of the Impact formula:I = P x A x T (where I = Environmental Impact, P = Population, A = Affluence, T = Technology)
Consider a beam of sunlight hitting the Earth at the equator as shown in Figure 1. The beam is approximately at right angles to the Earth's surface, so the amount of Earth it is spread over (area a), is the same as the width of the beam. Closer to the poles, a beam of the same width covers a much bigger amount of the Earth (area b), because it arrives at a different angle to the Earth's surface. This means that the surface of the Earth receives more energy in the tropics per unit area than it does at the poles. In a similar way, at midday, when the sun is highest in the sky, a sunbeam of a certain width illuminates an area smaller than the same sunbeam would illuminate at dawn or dusk, when the sun is lower in the sky. The sun therefore feels hottest at midday.
Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for relatively recent changes observed in the Earth's climate. The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record, when records are most reliable; particularly on the last 50 years,
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