A note
on the two Global Energy Budget readings:
For those of you with fewer climate
courses under your belt, these two readings may pose a bit of a
challenge! But give
them a try and focus on the big picture:
the complexity of the task of trying to estimate all the
components of the balance, and how this is done – including some
components that are estimated solely on the basis of the need for
the whole thing to balance! You
may find the Trenberth et al. (2009) article somewhat easier to
understand, but slogging through the Kiehl & Trenberth (1997) paper
first will provide more depth.
The Trenberth et al. (2009) article
includes information on latitudinal and land-ocean differences in
some of the components, which is more germane to our class.
Also in the 2009 paper, you will
find a few comments about the bias in some of the data that came
from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (NRA):
e.g., “The NRA has a
known bias in much too high surface albedo over the oceans . . .”
(p 15). You may find
these comments useful when you are doing Exercise #1 because all the
animations are based on the NRA.
Lastly, a careful reading of the
2009 paper will explain where the adjustments in the new values on
the 2009 budget figure came from and where the greatest
uncertainties remain.
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P.S.
For anyone who would like a more basic explanation of the energy
balance and its components, see the following pdf of a presentation
I give in my “Introduction to Global Change” class:
The
Earth’s Energy Balance
[pdf]
The presentation includes
THIS LINK to a simple
animation of the energy balance.
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