energy budget

The Earth's energy budget describes the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing thermal radiation. This balance determines Earth's temperature. While the overall budget is essentially zero over long periods, there's a latitudinal imbalance: more solar radiation is absorbed near the equator than at the poles. The atmosphere and oceans transfer heat from the equator to the poles to compensate for this.1

The atmosphere itself has a negative radiation budget, meaning it loses more energy than it gains. This is balanced by nonradiative heat transfer, largely through the evaporation and condensation of water. Radiative forcing measures how factors, both human-caused (like greenhouse gas emissions) and natural, influence the amount of radiant energy reaching Earth's surface, impacting temperature. The biosphere also plays a role, with living organisms exchanging mass and energy with the atmosphere, influencing its composition and dynamics.123