Summary: | Determination of the energy fluxes resulting from incident solar radiation is fundamental to an understanding of the physical conditions pre- vailing at any point on the earth's surface. Comprehensive work on the balance of thermal energy in temperate regions has been performed and reported, particularly by Thornthwaite and Halstead, (TH54). However, results of similar completeness are lacking for oceanic regions, a fact illustrated by the omission of detail for these areas in Budyko's world atlas of heat balance, (Bu55). The determination of the energy budget is particularly interesting in the Arctic, where an immense latent heat is involved in the freezing and subsequent melting of the oceans.
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