Shortwave Energy

This animation is based on drawing depicting the interaction between the Earth and the Sun with energy visually shown with wavy lines, both short waves for shortwave energy and long waves for long wave energy. Three layers are marked outside of the earth. From the inside out, these layers are labeled as the earth’s surface, atmosphere, and the ozone layer.

In this animation, the sun is sending shortwaves to the earth constantly. When hitting the surface or the outer layers of Earth, part of these shortwaves are bounced back to space while part of these shortwaves are absorbed by different parts of the Earth and its atmosphere. Among all the shortwave solar energy that is sent to the earth, a total of 31% is reflected into space, including 7% reflected by the atmosphere, 21% reflected by clouds, and 3% reflected from Earth’s surface. Among all the shortwave solar energy that is sent to the earth, a total of 52% is absorbed, including 18% absorbed by the atmosphere, 3% absorbed by stratospheric ozone, 3% absorbed by clouds, and 28% absorbed by land and oceans.