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Energy flux

Energy flux is the rate of energy flow per unit area. Energy flux is expressed in units of W/m, which is the number of joules of energy that pass through a square meter each second. Most fluxes quoted in high-level discussions of climate are global values, which means they are the total flow of energy over the entire globe, divided by the surface area of the Earth, 5.1 × 10 m (5.1 × 10 km; 2.0 × 10 sq mi).

The fluxes of radiation arriving at and leaving the Earth are important because radiative transfer is the only process capable of exchanging energy between Earth and the rest of the universe.