Knowing Earth's energy imbalance is critical in preventing global warming, study finds



According to a new research published today in the inaugural issue of Environmental Research: Climate, a new open access magazine, the imbalance of energy on Earth is the most crucial indicator of the scope and consequences of climate change.

Kevin Trenberth, a renowned researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and Lijing Cheng, a climate scientist and co-author, have created a new comprehensive inventory of all the different sources of surplus heat on Earth. In order to identify the imbalance, he looked at energy changes in the climate system's components of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice from 2000 to 2019. He then compared these changes to radiation at the top of the Earth's atmosphere.

According to Trenberth, whose paper was published today, "the net energy imbalance is calculated by looking at how much heat is absorbed from the Sun and how much is able to radiate back into space. It is not yet possible to measure the imbalance directly; the only useful way to estimate it is through an inventory of the changes in energy."

To understand and therefore manage the climate catastrophe, it is essential to comprehend the net energy gain of the climate system from all sources, how much more energy there is, and where it is redistributed in the Earth system. Prior to now, the increase in the Earth's global mean surface temperature has been the main focus of climate study. This is only one result of the overall energy imbalance that Earth is currently experiencing.

Excessive energy has an impact on weather patterns, directly increasing the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events including hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, heat waves, and heavy rain and flooding. Weather-related events transport energy, aid the climate system in releasing energy by radiating it into space, and have an impact on the global warming. According to the study, 93 percent of the excess heat caused by the imbalance is absorbed by the seas, raising their temperature and sea level and making 2021 the warmest year for the oceans on record.

"It is difficult to model the Earth's energy imbalance, and the pertinent measurements and their synthesis need to be improved. We may better predict our future if we comprehend how all types of energy are spread globally and are trapped or radiated back into space "Lijing Cheng, the study's co-author, says.

IOP Publishing

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