The annual radiation balance for the earth is given in Table 7-1. We can see that similar quantities of shortwave and longwave radiation arrive at our planet’s surface, but that the outgoing radiation is dominated by the longwave radiation emitted by the earth.
The amount left over, when all the incoming and outgoing radiation flows have been tallied, is the net radiation. This net radiation balance totals about one-fourth of the shortwave radiation that originally arrives at the atmosphere’s uppermost layer.