Abstract
The climate on Earth is generally determined by the amount and distribution of incoming solar radiation, which must be balanced in equilibrium by the emission of thermal radiation from the surface and atmosphere. The precise routes by which incoming energy is transferred from the surface and within the atmosphere and back out to space, however, are important features that characterize the current climate. This has been analyzed in the past by several groups over the years, based on combinations of numerical model simulations and direct observations of the Earth's climate system. The results are often presented in schematic form to show the main routes for the transfer of energy into, out of and within the climate system. Although relatively simple in concept, such diagrams convey a great deal of information about the climate system in a compact form. Such an approach has not so far been widely adopted in any systematic way for other planets of the Solar System, let alone beyond, although quite detailed climate models of several planets are now available, constrained by many new observations and measurements. Here we present an analysis of the global transfers of energy within the climate systems of a range of planets within the Solar System, including Mars, Titan, Venus and Jupiter, as modelled by relatively comprehensive radiative transfer and (in some cases) numerical circulation models. These results are presented in schematic form for comparison with the classical global energy budget analyses for the Earth, highlighting important similarities and differences. We also take the first steps towards extending this approach to other Solar System and extrasolar planets, including Mars, Venus, Titan, Jupiter and the ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet HD 189733b, presenting a synthesis of both previously published and new calculations for all of these planets.
Highlights
The climate of a planet like the Earth is largely determined by the flow of energy into and out from the top of the atmosphere and at the surface
Note that we restrict attention here to atmospheres below their respective thermospheres and ionospheres, where the physics and chemistry differs markedly from lower altitudes e.g. at altitudes below around 85 km for the Earth, and where energy exchanges contribute very little to the global energy budget
The vertical and geographical variations in these energy flows leads to local imbalances that can drive circulation and motions in the atmosphere and/or oceans associated with sensible heat fluxes, the details of which may depend strongly on other features of the planet - its size, rotation rate, obliquity etc
Summary
The climate of a planet like the Earth is largely determined by the flow of energy into and out from the top of the atmosphere and at the surface. A recent exception to this can be found in the work of Schubert and Mitchell (2013), in which a more systematic approach has been taken at least for Venus, Mars and Titan, with the intention of developing an assessment of the rates of entropy production and thermodynamic efficiency, treating those atmospheres (and that of the Earth itself) as classical heat engines (Peixoto and Oort 1992) Such an approach offers the potential for some interesting insights into how atmospheres process energy and entropy to achieve a balance between energy production and dissipation (e.g. Ozawa et al 2003; Lucarini 2009; Lucarini and Ragone 2011). These analyses are compared and discussed in the final section 8
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