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Cloud variations and the Earth's energy budget
Author(s) -
Dessler A. E.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl049236
Subject(s) - energy budget , atmosphere (unit) , environmental science , radiative transfer , cloud computing , climate change , atmospheric sciences , earth's energy budget , climate model , climatology , cloud feedback , meteorology , geology , physics , climate sensitivity , radiation , computer science , oceanography , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics , operating system
The question of whether clouds are the cause of surface temperature changes, rather than acting as a feedback in response to those temperature changes, is explored using data obtained between 2000 and 2010. An energy budget calculation shows that the radiative impact of clouds accounts for little of the observed climate variations. It is also shown that observations of the lagged response of top‐of‐atmosphere (TOA) energy fluxes to surface temperature variations are not evidence that clouds are causing climate change.