Global energy balance and climate modeling

Global Energy Balance

Energy balance of the climate system determines the present climate. The change of the energy balance, especially the term of radiation is the cause for most climate changes. The projects at ETH concentrated its effort on the energy balance at the earth’s surface where most energy conversion takes place. The project presented the new and accurate energy balance at the earth’s surface. The project also has become the first scientific project that successfully detected the important radiation changes that could lead to climate changes. During this project, three important discoveries were made: Missing Absorption, Global Dimming and Global Brightening. The observed irradiances were used to improve parameterization of radiation in GCM, especially of the ECHAM series. As the result, the earth’s surface irradiances simulated by ECHAM4 and ECHAM5 rank among the best in the world.

Contact: Martin Wild, Andreas Rösch, Raelene Sheppard, Atsumu Ohmura