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Detailed Reference Information |
Beltrami, H., Smerdon, J.E., Pollack, H.N. and Huang, S. (2002). Continental heat gain in the global climate system. Geophysical Research Letters 29: doi: 10.1029/2001GL014310. issn: 0094-8276. |
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Recent estimates have shown the heat gained by the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere as 18.2 ¿ 1022 J, 6.6 ¿ 1021 J, and 8.1 ¿ 1021 J, respectively over the past half-century. However, the heat gain of the lithosphere via a heat flux across the solid surface of the continents (29% of the Earth's surface) has not been addressed. Here we calculate that component of Earth's changing energy budget, using ground-surface temperature reconstructions for the continents. In the last half-century there was an average flux of 39.1 mW m-2 across the land surface into the subsurface, leading to 9.1 ¿ 1021 J absorbed by the ground. The heat inputs during the last half-century into all the major components of the climate system - atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, lithosphere-reinforce the conclusion that the warming during the interval has been global. |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Global Change, Climate dynamics, Global Change, Solid Earth, Global Change, Atmosphere (0315, 0325), Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Land/atmosphere interactions, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Paleoclimatology |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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