ENERGY TRANSPORT WITHIN THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE OCEAN SYSTEM FROM A CLIMATE POINT OF VIEW

The earth's atmosphere-ocean system is considered from an energy balance point of view. First the monthly mean satellite observations of the radiation budget are discussed. In particular the Nimbus 6 Earth Radiation Budget experiment is emphasized since it contributes half of the radiation data. The many sources of measurment error are presented with the conclusion that about half of the (+OR-) 9W/m('2) errors in the net radiation comes from systematic errors.; From the annual net radiation map the divergent component of the flux of energy is calculated. This vector field shows the expected equator to pole energy transport but it also shows substantial east-west flows. The magnitude of the east-west components is about the same as the deviations from the latitude zonal mean of the north-south fluxes. The global circulation divides into an eastward and westward flow hemisphere with zero flux line at 20(DEGREES)E and 190(DEGREES)E.; The monthly time variation of the transports can only be examined in the zonal mean because maps of the large amounts of energy stored in the oceans have not been measured. Going beyond the studies of Oort and Vonder Haar (1976) the divergence of energy flux by the atmosphere can be divided into a component over land and over ocean. This shows the expected flow of energy toward the land in winter, but it shows a reversal with flow towards the oceans in summer. Thus the radiation energy absorbed over the land contributes to heating the ocean. Also some preliminary results for the southern hemisphere is more dominated by the ocean storage term with a weak and disorganized seasonal change in the atmospheric branch.; Next the energy transport fields are compared to the surface temperature fields by calculating Austach or mixing coefficients for different modes of transport. The divergence of atmospheric energy flux is closely coupled to the temperature field for the large scale even for separate calculation for each month of the year. The atmosphere plus ocean term is less well predicted by the temperature field. For specific latitude zones there is a decrease of the coefficient with latitude implying a connection to the coriolis parameter. This agrees with the fact that east-west energy transport is set off with a much weaker temperature gradient.; A short examinaiton is made of the concept that the circulation adjusts so that there is a maximum export of entropy from the earth (Paltridge, 1975). The seasonal cycle of entropy generation agrees with this. It does not consitute proof of the principle because the amount of energy storage is an extra degree of the freedom.; Finally an attempt at climate monitoring is decribed, the comparison of 2 years of Nimbus 6 radiation data with simultaneous atmospheric observations. To go beyond the methods of comparing the seasonal cycle of two variables, the comparison of year to year differences should provide better parameterization estimates. A null result was obtained because measured uncertainty masked any significant correlation.