What is the Heat Budget?

Answer: The idea of a heat budget is concerned with how much solar heat is absorbed and used by the earth’s atmosphere and surface. This explains why, despite the massive heat transfer, neither the earth’s temperature rises nor falls.

• A heat budget is a precise balance between the amount of heat that enters the planet, is absorbed by it, and leaves it as radiation
• The earth’s heat budget is the balance between insolation and terrestrial radiation
• Earth will get either too warm or too cold if the equilibrium between incoming and exiting heat is disturbed. The earth is just the right temperature because these are perfectly balanced