The earth's energy budget is a simple but profoundly important systemic way of viewing Global Warming. Let's look at the figures:
Of the ~340 W/m² of solar radiation received by the Earth, an average of ~77 W/m² is reflected back to space by clouds and the atmosphere and ~23 W/m² is reflected by the surface albedo, leaving ~240 W/m² of solar energy input to the Earth's energy budget.
With regard the units referenced in the tables below - 100 units = about 1,360 watts per square meter facing the sun.
# Sunlight reflected from earth
Here is the breakdown of the suns energy that is reflected due to the earths albedo:
27 Reflected from top of clouds 2 Reflected by snow and ice covered areas 6 Reflected by other parts of atmosphere SUM Total Albedo
# Breakdown of incoming solar radiation
The 65 remaining units are absorbed: 14 within the atmosphere and 51 by the Earth’s surface. In the table below you can see a top level overview of what happens to the suns energy when it hits the earth:
35 Reflected due to albedo 14 Absorbed by atmosphere - insolation 51 Absorbed by earths surface SUM
About half (51%) of the suns radiation hitting the earth is absorbed byt the earths surface,
# Terrestrial radiation
Let's look at what happens to the radiation absorbed by the earths surface. Eventually it is all radiated out to space in the form of terrestrial radiation. However 34% of it is translated to the atmosphere first, with only 17% directly reaching space from the ground:
17 Radiated directly to space 34 Radiated to atmosphere from earth SUM
# Radiated back up to atmosphere from earth
Here we breakdown the energy radiated back up to the atmosphere from the earth:
19 Absorbed - latent heat of condensation 9 Absorbed - convection and turbulence 6 Absorbed - directly by surface SUM Total radiated to atmosphere from earth
# Total radiation absorbed by atmosphere
So the total amount of heat absorbed by the atmosphere is made up of energy directly absorbed from the sun, and some radiated by the earth:
14 Absorbed by atmosphere - insolation 34 Radiated to atmosphere from earth SUM Total absorbed by atmosphere
# Radiation out to space
Eventually all this radiation has to go back out to space. Let's look at how all the energy absorbed is eventually radiated back out into space:
35 Reflected due to albedo 48 Radiated from the atmosphere 17 Radiated directly from ground SUM Total reflection and radiation