where is the surface/what is the surface.
Jim D | April 19, 2017 “The way to cancel a radiative imbalance is surface warming.”
On fire today Jim D, and making a very pertinent though unintended point.
The earth does not have a defined surface. Unlike say the moon where with low gravity and virtually no atmosphere, no lakes of water. the TOA is virtually the same as the surface.
The surface of the earth is actually a multi layer, multi media surface, 99.99997% of the surface atmosphere is below 100 km (62 mi; 330,000 ft), the Kármán line. By international convention, this marks the beginning of space.
Personally I think a definition of the surface of a planet/asteroid/black body etc should be those parts that are capable of receiving, reflecting or absorbing radiation.
Such a definition would reduce the surface of the moon to a few mm of depth whereas on earth the surface would be by definition 100 to 100.01 km thick as it would also include the depth to which it can penetrate the ocean say 100 meters for 99.99997 percent of the incident energy.
The point I am making is that the surface warming is just not at the surface commonly referred to by Jim D and most here but included the atmosphere itself.
99.99997% is below 100 km (62 mi; 330,000 ft), the Kármán line. By international convention, this marks the beginning of space
