2015/12/04 by Chirag Dhara, Dhara, Chirag, Maik Renner +3
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) #Climate Change Policy and Economics #Climate variability and models #FOS: Physical sciences #physics.ao-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1512.01374
17 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables
arxiv created 2015/12/04 · openalex publication_date 2015/12/04 · arxiv updated 2015/12/07 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Convective and radiative cooling are the two principle mechanisms by which the Earth's surface transfers heat into the atmosphere and that shape surface temperature. However, this partitioning is not sufficiently constrained by energy and mass balances alone. We use a simple energy balance model in which convective fluxes and surface temperatures are determined with the additional thermodynamic limit of maximum convective power. We then show that the broad geographic variation of heat fluxes and surface temperatures in the climatological mean compare very well with the ERA-Interim reanalysis over land and ocean. We also show that the estimates depend considerably on the formulation of longwave radiative transfer and that a spatially uniform offset is related to the assumed cold temperature sink at which the heat engine operates.