Earth’s radiation budget – the driver for weather and climate

Kurzfassung

Earth’s structure today is manifested in the known distribution of continents and oceans, in a variety of surface types, as well as in a surrounding atmosphere consisting of gaseous constituents, aerosols, and clouds. This complex composition defines a framework that determines the specific amounts of solar energy our planet currently absorbs, reflects, and emits back to space via radiation. The components of Earth's radiation budget and how they are measured are described, the primary energy flows within the Earth system in an equilibrium state are explained and the imbalances of the radiation budget when zooming into smaller temporal and spatial scales are discussed.