Earth's Energy Imbalance More Than Doubled in Recent Decades

2025/05/10 by Thorsten Mauritsen, Yoko Tsushima, Benoît Meyssignac +54 · 6 voices · 6 citations
Energy · Physics and Astronomy · Environmental Science · #Global Energy and Sustainability Research #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics

paper · doi:10.1029/2024av001636

Abstract

Abstract Global warming results from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions which upset the delicate balance between the incoming sunlight, and the reflected and emitted radiation from Earth. The imbalance leads to energy accumulation in the atmosphere, oceans and land, and melting of the cryosphere, resulting in increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather around the globe. Despite the fundamental role of the energy imbalance in regulating the climate system, as known to humanity for more than two centuries, our capacity to observe it is rapidly deteriorating as satellites are being decommissioned.

Citations

• Recent global temperature surge intensified by record-low planetary albedo
• Global warming in the pipeline

Cited by

• Emerging low-cloud feedback and adjustment in global satellite observations
• Ocean Heat Content Sets Another Record in 2025
• Southern Ocean Clear‐Sky Brightening From Sea Spray Aerosol Increase Drives Departure From Hemispheric Albedo Symmetry
• Cloud Regime Contributions to Recent Changes in Outgoing Radiation: A 22‐year Satellite Data Analysis
• Atypical warming pattern of strong 2023-24 El Niño boosts global temperatures to new 1.5 °C record
• Improved closure of the global mean sea level budget from observational advances since 1960

Discussions

• 🚨Earth's energy imbalance more than doubled in recent decades🚨 'if surprises lie ahead, for example, from unexpectedly large aerosol forcing (Hansen et al., 2023), or an unexpected loss of climate [bsky, 86 points, 4 comments]
• The doubling of the rate of global heating in recent decades has surprised the scientific community so needs to be better understood yet our capability to measure Earth's energy imbalance is at risk: [bsky, 73 points, 3 comments]
• Read the #OpenAccess commentary by Mauritsen et al. (2025) for free! 👉 doi.org/10.1029/2024... #ClimateAction #Atmosphere #GreenhouseGases #ClimateModels #SciencePolicy [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• Auch diese Erkenntnis wird keine Konsequenzen haben, wie schon viele andere in den letzten Jahrzehnten #klimakrise, die kaum jemanden so richtig interessiert doi.org/10.1029/2024... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• Dünyanın Enerji Dengesizliği Son On Yıllarda İki Katına Çıktı doi.org/10.1029/2024... [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
• DOI: doi.org/10.1029/2024... [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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