01 January 1970 0 2K Report

I cannot find any paper that deals with this question. There seem to be three schools of thought none seeming based on anything more than speculation.

  • the energy received from the Sun is balanced by radiation emitted by the Earth abet at longer wavelengths
  • the Earth releases slightly less energy than received as a consequence of global climate change.
  • Earth is radiating more heat energy than it receives from the Sun as it cools, a very slow process from the hot Earth interior.

As mentioned in the question the gas and ice planet's energy balance is somewhat mysterious. For example, Neptune is farther from the sun than Uranus but is either the same temperature or slightly warmer.. As a result of processes not fully understood, Neptune emits more than twice the energy that it receives from the Sun 2.6.as does Jupiter (almost twice as much as received and Saturn 2.3 times the energy from sunlight is radiated into space. It is odd that Uranus while it does generate more heat than it receives, much less than the other three aforementioned planets, it also has another energy puzzle both its polar regions have the same temperature even though one of the two is in total darkness. It appears to me that in this age of climate change comparative planetology is a useful tool to understand our planet as well.

Similar questions and discussions