Earth absorbing more heat than it radiates

The Earth is absorbing more energy from the Sun than it is emitting to space, according to a new modelling study. The difference amounts to 0.85 watts for every square metre of the planet’s surface. That is equivalent of 7 trillion 60-watt light bulbs - or the energy output of almost half a million thousand-megawatt power stations.
Most of the extra heat is warming the oceans - the ultimate repository of most of the solar radiation reaching the Earth, says Jim Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, US, and a leading climate change scientist for the past two decades.
The findings are the result of modelling studies of the atmosphere’s “energy budget” by a US team, headed by Hansen. The calculations are supported by precise measurements of ocean temperature over the past 10 years, he says.