Cute Little Totoro
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Super rough draft no 1
Figure 3-19 shows the average atmospheric budget of the earth, how the surface and atmosphere absorb, reflect and radiate energy from the sun.
Arrows represent the flux of heat between the sun, atmosphere, the earth’s surface and space. The numbers in parentheses are amounts of energy in units arbitrarily normalized to one hundred units incoming from the sun.
100 units of radiation come in from the sun. A total of 30 of these units are reflected: 25 units from the atmosphere, and 5 units from the earth’s surface. The rest of the radiation is absorbed. The atmosphere absorbs 25 units, and the surface absorbs 45 units.
The atmosphere emits a total of 66 units of radiation. 25 of these units are from the energy absorbed directly from the sun.
29 of the units emitted are absorbed from the surface through convective transfer, where warmer, less dense air from near the surface. 5 units are from thermals, which are columns of raising air that form over warm places on the surface. 24 units are from evaporated water.
The remaining 12 units were received from radiation from the surface.
These units are a part of the greenhouse effect. 104 units of energy are radiated by the surface. 4 of theses units are radiated directly in to space, 88 units are caught by the greenhouse gasses and radiated back to the surface.
Out of the hundred incoming units of solar radiations, 30 units are reflected by the surface or atmosphere, and 70 are radiated into space, for a total of 100 outgoing units.
Arrows represent the flux of heat between the sun, atmosphere, the earth’s surface and space. The numbers in parentheses are amounts of energy in units arbitrarily normalized to one hundred units incoming from the sun.
100 units of radiation come in from the sun. A total of 30 of these units are reflected: 25 units from the atmosphere, and 5 units from the earth’s surface. The rest of the radiation is absorbed. The atmosphere absorbs 25 units, and the surface absorbs 45 units.
The atmosphere emits a total of 66 units of radiation. 25 of these units are from the energy absorbed directly from the sun.
29 of the units emitted are absorbed from the surface through convective transfer, where warmer, less dense air from near the surface. 5 units are from thermals, which are columns of raising air that form over warm places on the surface. 24 units are from evaporated water.
The remaining 12 units were received from radiation from the surface.
These units are a part of the greenhouse effect. 104 units of energy are radiated by the surface. 4 of theses units are radiated directly in to space, 88 units are caught by the greenhouse gasses and radiated back to the surface.
Out of the hundred incoming units of solar radiations, 30 units are reflected by the surface or atmosphere, and 70 are radiated into space, for a total of 100 outgoing units.
