Earth's energy imbalance more than doubled in recent decades

Mauritsen, T., Tsushima, Y., Meyssignac, B., Loeb, N. G., Hakuba, M., Pilewskie, P., Cole, J., Suzuki, K., Ackerman, T. P., Allan, R. P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0264-9447, Andrews, T., Bender, F. A.‐M., Bloch‐Johnson, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8465-5383, Bodas‐Salcedo, A., Brookshaw, A., Ceppi, P., Clerbaux, N., Dessler, A. E., Donohoe, A., Dufresne, J.‐L., Eyring, V., Findell, K. L., Gettelman, A., Gristey, J. J., Hawkins, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9477-3677, Heimbach, P., Hewitt, H. T., Jeevanjee, N., Jones, C., Kang, S. M., Kato, S., Kay, J. E., Klein, S. A., Knutti, R., Kramer, R., Lee, J.‐Y., McCoy, D. T., Medeiros, B., Megner, L., Modak, A., Ogura, T., Palmer, M. D., Paynter, D., Quaas, J., Ramanathan, V., Ringer, M., von Schuckmann, K., Sherwood, S., Stevens, B., Tan, I., Tselioudis, G., Sutton, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8345-8583, Voigt, A., Watanabe, M., Webb, M. J., Wild, M. and Zelinka, M. D. (2025) Earth's energy imbalance more than doubled in recent decades. AGU Advances, 6 (3). e2024AV001636. ISSN 2576-604X doi: 10.1029/2024AV001636

Abstract/Summary

Global warming results from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions which upset the delicate balance between the incoming sunlight, and the reflected and emitted radiation from Earth. The imbalance leads to energy accumulation in the atmosphere, oceans and land, and melting of the cryosphere, resulting in increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather around the globe. Despite the fundamental role of the energy imbalance in regulating the climate system, as known to humanity for more than two centuries, our capacity to observe it is rapidly deteriorating as satellites are being decommissioned.