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Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
The total average energy per unit time radiated by Earth is equal to the average energy flux j times the surface area 4πR 2, where R is Earth's radius. On the other hand, the average energy flux absorbed from sunlight is the solar constant S 0 times Earth's cross section of πR 2 , times the fraction absorbed by Earth, which is one minus Earth ...
The five components of the climate system all interact. They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [1]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).
Most of Earth's surface is ocean water: 70.8% or 361 million km 2 (139 million sq mi). [96] This vast pool of salty water is often called the world ocean, [97] [98] and makes Earth with its dynamic hydrosphere a water world [99] [100] or ocean world. [101] [102] Indeed, in Earth's early history the ocean may have covered Earth completely. [103]
The effects of climate change on the water cycle have important negative effects on the availability of freshwater resources, as well as other water reservoirs such as oceans, ice sheets, the atmosphere and soil moisture. The water cycle is essential to life on Earth and plays a large role in the global climate system and ocean circulation.
Photosynthetic cells use the sun's energy to split off water's hydrogen from oxygen. [107] In the presence of sunlight, hydrogen is combined with CO 2 (absorbed from air or water) to form glucose and release oxygen. [108] All living cells use such fuels and oxidize the hydrogen and carbon to capture the sun's energy and reform water and CO
Ocean heat content and sea level rise are important indicators of climate change. [10] Ocean water can absorb a lot of solar energy because water has far greater heat capacity than atmospheric gases. [6] As a result, the top few meters of the ocean contain more energy than the entire Earth's atmosphere. [11]
The geothermal heat flow from the Earth's interior is estimated to be 47 terawatts (TW) [12] and split approximately equally between radiogenic heat and heat left over from the Earth's formation. This corresponds to an average flux of 0.087 W/m 2 and represents only 0.027% of Earth's total energy budget at the surface, being dwarfed by the 173 ...