Actual Balance

Directions: Watch the following video to answer these questions below:

1.When talking about Earth’s Energy Budget and its balance what are the units that are used for

each process?

2.Approximately, how much energy does 1 square meter of the sun emit outward toward earth?

3.Approximately, how much of that energy reaches, on average, 1 square meter at the top of Earth’s atmosphere (TOA)?

4.In general once solar radiation reaches our atmosphere, it has 3 fates. Ignoring scattering of the light, It can be ____________, ________________, or ________________.

5.What gas absorbs most UV light coming from the sun in the upper atmosphere?

6.What are 2 things in the atmosphere that the video mentions causes sunlight to be reflected back out to space?

7.What percentage of the incoming solar radiation (341.3 W/m2) gets reflected directly back to space?

8.What 2 major things in the atmosphere cause this reflection?

9.What percentage of the incoming solar radiation gets absorbed by the atmosphere?

10.What percentage of Earth’s atmosphere makes its way through to the surface of Earth?

11.What 2 surfaces on Earth does the video mention are good at reflecting solar radiation?

12.What is the percentage of the incoming solar radiation that gets directly absorbed into Earth’s surface?

13.What is the percentage of sunlight that gets reflected right back out into space?What percentage stays in the atmosphere and earth?14.

What would happen to Earth’s surface temperature or the atmosphere if it continuously

absorbed 239 W/m2 ? Think of a microwave.

15.Why does the answer to 14 not happen to a dramatic extent though?

16.What is the total amount of W/m 2 entering Earth’s surface from direct solar radiation and absorption from the atmosphere?

17.Show your work and describe, based on the specific numbers (to the nearest 0.1 W/m2) that the video provides, if these quantities show if there is a balance in the overall Earth/Atmosphere system at the top of earth’s atmosphere. Is there an actual balance? If there is not a balance, what is that number and how much energy is staying within the Earth/Atmosphere system and how much is leaving?