Short description:

This book offers a thorough exploration of the observation of Earth's water–energy cycle, a foundational aspect of climate science. It features a collection of up-to-date articles that provide insights into current estimates of the Earth’s water and energy fluxes, based on satellite observations, atmosphere–ocean reanalyses, and global coupled atmosphere–ocean model simulations. The book deepens our understanding of the role of clouds in the energy cycle, focusing particularly on tropical clouds and their responses to surface warming patterns, which influence global warming. It also examines the connection between tropical clouds and deep convection in the tropics. Furthermore, the volume identifies key priorities for developing an integrated and optimized observation system for Earth's water–energy cycle. It highlights the challenges currently faced in monitoring and modeling this cycle to improve predictions on annual to multi-decadal timescales.

Reprinted from Surveys in Geophysics, Special Issue: Earth's Changing Water and Energy Cycle, Vol. 45, 2024.

Long description:

This book offers a thorough exploration of the observation of Earth's water–energy cycle, a foundational aspect of climate science. It features a collection of up-to-date articles that provide insights into current estimates of the Earth’s water and energy fluxes, based on satellite observations, atmosphere–ocean reanalyses, and global coupled atmosphere–ocean model simulations. The book deepens our understanding of the role of clouds in the energy cycle, focusing particularly on tropical clouds and their responses to surface warming patterns, which influence global warming. It also examines the connection between tropical clouds and deep convection in the tropics. Furthermore, the volume identifies key priorities for developing an integrated and optimized observation system for Earth's water–energy cycle. It highlights the challenges currently faced in monitoring and modeling this cycle to improve predictions on annual to multi-decadal timescales.

Reprinted from Surveys in Geophysics, Special Issue: Earth's Changing Water and Energy Cycle, Vol. 45, 2024.

Table of Contents:

Trends and Variability in Earth’s Energy Imbalance and Ocean Heat Uptake since 2005.- Observational Assessment of Changes in Earth’s Energy Imbalance Since 2000.- Closure of Earth’s Global Seasonal Cycle of Energy Storage.- The Global Energy Balance as represented in Atmospheric Reanalyses.- Assessment of atmospheric and surface energy budgets usingobservation-based data products.- North Atlantic heat transport convergence derived from a regional energy budget using different ocean heat content estimates.- An abrupt decline in global terrestrial water storage and its relationship with sea level change.- Tropical Deep Convection, cloud feedbacks and climate sensitivity.- A multi-satellite perspective on "hot tower" characteristics in the equatorial trough zone.- A Geostationary Satellite-Based Approach to Estimate Convective Mass Fluxand Revisit the Hot Tower Hypothesis.- METEOSAT Long-Term Observations Reveal Changes in Convective Organization over Tropical Africa and Atlantic Ocean.- Lessons learned from the updated GEWEX Cloud Assessment database.