Vol. 6, Issue 3 (2018)
Climate change and the earth’s energy imbalance
Author(s): Jami Naveen, Guntamukkala Babu Rao and Gayatri Kumari
Abstract: The global energy budget is affected by external changes and internal climate variability as well as atmospheric composition, which mainly relies on the variability of the climate and anthropogenic activity, notably greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1970 more solar energy from the sun has entered the top of the atmosphere than the amount of solar energy back in the form of infrared radiation. The energy imbalance increased over years and for a given energy imbalance, the oceans determine the climate response due to their huge heat capacity. Ocean warming accounts for about 93 per cent of the total excess energy, with the upper 700 meters accounting for 64 per cent of this. The associated temperature increase of the ocean has contributed about 40 per cent of the observed sea level rise since 1970. As a result of energy imbalance, the total mass loss from glaciers has increased significantly around 1970-2009. The loss of ice mass from the Antarctic Ice Sheets and Greenland has increased drastically over the period 2002-2011 compared to 1992-2001. Stabilisation of the energy imbalance would not immediately lead to a stabilization of the warming. Full equilibrium would be reached in the deep ocean only after thousands of years.
Pages: 313-315 | 700 Views 57 Downloads
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How to cite this article:
Jami Naveen, Guntamukkala Babu Rao, Gayatri Kumari. Climate change and the earth’s energy imbalance. Int J Chem Stud 2018;6(3):313-315.
