Editing Radiative cooling (section)

=== Earth's energy budget ===
{{further|Earth's energy budget}}
The Earth-atmosphere system is radiatively cooled, emitting long-wave ([[Infrared radiation|infrared]]) radiation which balances the absorption of short-wave (visible light) energy from the sun.

Convective transport of heat, and evaporative transport of latent heat are both important in removing heat from the surface and distributing it in the atmosphere. Pure radiative transport is more important higher up in the atmosphere. Diurnal and geographical variation further complicate the picture.

The large-scale circulation of the [[Earth's atmosphere]] is driven by the difference in absorbed solar radiation per square meter, as the sun heats the Earth more in the [[Tropics]], mostly because of geometrical factors. The atmospheric and oceanic circulation redistributes some of this energy as [[sensible heat]] and [[latent heat]] partly via the mean flow and partly via eddies, known as [[cyclone]]s in the atmosphere. Thus the tropics radiate less to space than they would if there were no circulation, and the poles radiate more; however in absolute terms the tropics radiate more energy to space.