Longwave 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, Earth is sending longwave to space constantly. Among all the longwave solar energy that is being emitted from the Earth, a total of 69% is radiated into space. This, when combined with 31% of shortwave solar energy reflected into space, accounts for 100% of all energy received from the Sun. Therefore, the Earth’s energy is balanced on a planetary scale. Among the 69%, 3% of longwave radiates from the ozone layer, 58% of longwave radiates from the atmosphere, 8% radiates from the Earth’s surface.