How much of the solar energy that reaches Earth's atmosphere is absorbed by the atmosphere and energy is caused by uneven heating of the Earth's surface?
Roughly 30% of the solar energy that reaches Earth's atmosphere is reflected back into space, while about 20% is absorbed by the atmosphere, particularly by gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide, and ozone. The remaining 50% is absorbed by the Earth's surface, leading to uneven heating and the subsequent generation of weather patterns and climate phenomena. This balance of energy absorption and reflection plays a crucial role in Earth's climate system.
About 23 percent of incoming solar energy is absorbed in the atmosphere by water vapor, dust, and ozone, and 48 percent passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by the surface. Thus, about 71 percent of the total incoming solar energy is absorbed by the Earth system. As you can see, the amount reflected by the atmosphere (6%), clouds (20%) and the surface of the Earth (4%) is 30%. The gases in the atmosphere also absorb 16%, and clouds absorb 3%. That is 49%. The reason the atmosphere is different from the clouds is the atmosphere is referring to gases in the atmosphere. Only a small part of the solar energy reaches the outer layer of the earth's atmosphere. Nearly half of it is absorbed while passing through the atmosphere and the rest reaches the earth's surface. So, only 0.00000005% of sun's total energy is received by the earth. The solar energy reaching the surface of the earth is about 1016W whereas the worldwide power demand is 1013W. That means solar energy gives us 1000 times more energy than our requirement.100% of the energy entering the earth's atmosphere comes from the sun. 51% of the incoming energy is absorbed by the earth's surface i.e. the land and oceans. It's not possible to give exact numbers, but nearly 30% of the Sun's incoming energy is reflected by the atmosphere and the surface. Another 23% is absorbed by the atmosphere. Hence only about 47% reaches Earth's surface and is aborbed by it.
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