While researching albedo, I came across the topic of heat entering and leaving the Earth. The flow of heat in and out is apparently called the heat balance. I guess it’s called a balance because it’s like economic income and expenditure. There are three ways that heat is transmitted: convection, where a heated substance moves; conduction, where heat is transmitted through a substance; and radiation, where heat is generated when electromagnetic waves hit an object. Radiation seems to work on the same principle as a microwave oven.
The heat that comes into the Earth seems to be mainly radiation from the Sun, and the temperature of the Sun does not seem to have much to do with it. Electromagnetic waves from the Sun are strongest in the yellow wavelengths around 500 nm, and contain a wide range of wavelengths from infrared to ultraviolet, and these combined make up sunlight. Sunlight is absorbed by the ozone layer and the atmosphere, and is reflected by clouds and snow fields, which are the main contributors to albedo, and most of the light that reaches the Earth’s surface is visible light, and it is these electromagnetic waves that reach the Earth’s surface that generate heat.
https://tigakutasu.com/newtigakukisokyousitu_tikyuunonetusyuusi
This is how heat comes in, and heat goes out as infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface. This infrared radiation is absorbed and radiated by clouds and the atmosphere, and eventually goes out into space, so the total heat balance of the Earth is zero. If the heat balance is positive, the Earth’s temperature will continue to rise, and if it is negative, the temperature will continue to fall, so this balance of zero heat balance is exquisite. The heat balance is amazing.
Next, there is the mass balance of the Earth, which seems to show that there are materials that enter the Earth and materials that leave it. The inflow of mass is dust and meteorites attracted by the Earth’s gravity, which amounts to about 10,000 to 40,000 tons per year. The outflow of mass is a large amount of hydrogen and helium called atmospheric escape, which amounts to about 70,000 to 100,000 tons per year.Just as helium rises into the sky when it is put into a balloon, hydrogen and helium are too light to be held in place by the Earth’s gravity. In addition, the Earth’s core generates heat, causing a mass loss of several tens of tons per year, so the Earth’s mass balance is in the negative by tens of thousands of tons per year. The atmosphere is precious.
https://gigazine.net/news/20220213-earth-mass-gain-loss
Of the atmosphere released from the Earth, hydrogen has spread to over 240,000 km, and oxygen has reached the Moon. The release of hydrogen and oxygen means that water is leaving the Earth, but there doesn’t seem to be any expression for the water balance in terms of the inflow and outflow of water on Earth, but if there is, the water balance may also be negative.
https://www.rikkyo.ac.jp/news/2017/12/mknpps0000008601.html
https://www.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp/ja/topics/5489
Also, the Earth’s magnetosphere seems to take in and release plasma energy from the solar wind, so this may also be a balance. There seems to be a flow in which energy is taken in at the magnetopause, accumulated in the tail, consumed in the radiation belt, and released into interplanetary space, so the balance is thought to be positive to the extent that it is consumed internally. I’m looking forward to finding out more about this as well.
https://www.isas.jaxa.jp/feature/forefront/161226.html
I looked at the Earth’s heat, mass, water, and plasma energy balances, and after looking at other balances, I realized that it’s amazing that the heat balance is zero. And the atmosphere and water we have now may be one-offs. The Earth’s balance is amazing.
