Water radiation budget

In addition to biogeochemical cycles (discussed in Section 6.5), the hydrosphere is a major component of many physical cycles, with climate among the most prominent. Water affects the solar radiation budget through albedo (primarily clouds and ice/snow), the terrestrial radiation budget as a strong absorber of terrestrial emissions, and global temperature distribution as the primary transporter of heat in the ocean and atmosphere. 

The radiatively active trace gases, which contribute most to atmospheric absorption, and hence play a key role in the energy budget of the middle atmosphere, are carbon dioxide, ozone, and water vapor. Other gases, whose sources are partly related to anthropogenic activity (such as CH4, N2O, and chlorofluorocarbons) also contribute to the radiation budget. 

Particulate material, other than water or ice, in the atmosphere ranging in size from approximately lOx-3 to larger than 10x2 m in radius. Aerosols are important in the atmosphere as nuclei for the condensation of water droplets and ice crystals, as participants in various chemical cycles, and as absorbers and scatterers of solar radiation, thereby influencing the radiation budget of the earth-atmosphere system, which in turn influences the climate on the surface of the Earth, agglomeration... 

The global heat cycle drives the hydrological cycle, which in turn controls the salinity of seawater. The most important contributor of heat to the crustal-ocean-fectory is solar radiation. The flux of solar radiation that reaches Earth is termed insolation. Only a fraction of the incoming solar radiation reaches Earth s surfece, because a large portion is either reflected or absorbed by the atmosphere. That which reaches Earth s surface is also either reflected or absorbed. In the end, about half of the incoming radiation is absorbed by the rocks and water on Earth s surfece. (A detailed heat budget is provided... 

Meteorological transport processes in coastal marine environments are important from several points of view. For example, the wind stress or momentum flux is one of the most essential driving forces in water circulatiom Heat and convection are the origin of some localized coastal weather systems. Sensible heat and water vapor fluxes are necessaiy elements in radiation and heat budget considerations, including computation of evaporation and salt flux for a given estuarine system. 

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