Solar Energy In The Atmosphere

The earth atmosphere energy balance is achieved as the energy received from the sun balances the energy lost by the earth back into space.

Solar energy in the atmosphere. The earth s surface radiates the net equivalent of 17 percent of the incoming solar energy in the form of thermal infrared. About 30 of the solar energy that reaches earth is reflected back into space. The sun provides energy for almost everything that happens on earth. The remaining fraction 5 to 6 percent is absorbed by the atmosphere by greenhouse gas molecules.

The solar constantis a conventional measure of mean tsi at a distance of one astronomical unit au. The rest is absorbed into earth s atmosphere. The radiation warms the earth s surface and the surface radiates some of the energy back out in the form of infrared waves. About half of the solar radiation that strikes the top of the atmosphere is filtered out before it reaches the ground.

In this way the earth maintains a stable average temperature and therefore a stable climate. Scientists at the laboratory for atmospheric and space physics put it clearly. Using solar energy can have a positive indirect effect on the environment when solar energy replaces or reduces the use of other energy sources that have larger effects on the environment. Solar energy systems power plants do not produce air pollution water pollution or greenhouse gases.

Of the radiant energy reaching the top of the atmosphere 46 percent is absorbed by earth s surface on average but this value varies significantly from place to place depending on cloudiness surface type and elevation. Total solar irradiance tsi is a measure of the solar powerover all wavelengths per unit area incident on the earth s upper atmosphere. However the amount that directly escapes to space is only about 12 percent of incoming solar energy. Using 100 units of energy from the sun as a baseline the energy balance is as follows.

It is measured perpendicularto the incoming sunlight. Photosynthesis captures approximately 3 000 ej per year in biomass. In 2002 this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year. Scattering occurs when a light wave strikes a particle and bounces off in some other direction.

Solar radiation powers the complex and tightly coupled circulation dynamics chemistry and interactions among the atmosphere oceans ice and land that maintain the terrestrial environment as humanity s habitat.