Workshops

2^nd GEWEX Earth’s Energy Imbalance Assessment Workshop

June 1 – 5, 2026, 8:30am – 5:00pm, Pacific Time Zone (PT)
Pasadena, CA, USA (hybrid)

The deadline for submitting an abstract is January 31, 2026.

Click here to submit an abstract

Registration (free!) – opens in January

About this workshop

A photo of the Earth viewed from space centered on North America.

The Earth’s Energy Imbalance (EEI) is the difference between Earth’s absorbed solar radiation and Earth’s thermal radiation emitted at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). Integrated over the globe and over multiple years, the EEI represents a measure of the excess or deficit of energy stored in the Earth system. Over the last several decades, EEI has been positive and increasing in response to anthropogenic forcings.

Organizers: Maria Hakuba (JPL/Caltech), James Reagan (NOAA/NCEI), Patrick Taylor (NASA Langley), Benoit Meyssignac (CNES/LEGOS)

Measuring and understanding EEI, its time variability, and long-term trend is essential to understanding the current state of our planet and predicting its future evolution. Under its Data and Analysis Panel (GDAP), the World Climate Research Programme’s (WCRP) core project Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) initiated the “Earth Energy Imbalance assessment”. The GEWEX-EEI assessment’s objective is to evaluate the quality and the uncertainty of current EEI estimates. It focuses mainly on two sources of data: 1) observations of the TOA radiative fluxes from space radiometry and 2) observations of the ocean heat content from in situ data, satellite altimetry, space gravimetry and ocean reanalysis. The surplus energy is not entirely stored in the ocean, about 9% of the energy is stored in other components of the Earth system such as the cryosphere, the continents and the atmosphere. These other energy stores are also evaluated in the framework of the assessment.

The approach adopted in the GEWEX-EEI assessment is to design an intercomparison of EEI estimates and associated uncertainty. This intercomparison enables progress on:

Assessing the quality of different EEI records
Understanding the sources of uncertainty in different EEI estimates
Understanding the causes for the spread in EEI estimates
Quantifying and understanding EEI time variability including trends
Improving regional earth energy and heat uptake estimates

The expected outcome of the workshop is to define an action plan for the future and converge on recommendations from the Scientific Community.

Main Goals for this workshop:

Assess closure of Earth’s energy budget from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean.
Advance our understanding of the causes of ocean heat content and energy balance variations.
Explain the spread across EEI estimates; derive and recommend methods that reduce and quantify EEI uncertainty.
Identify gaps, challenges and opportunities for the EEI observing system of the future.

EEI assessment Workshop Themes include:

Theme 1: Science of Earth's Energy Imbalance

Energy exchanges between ocean (layers), atmosphere, and land
The impact of vertical and horizontal ocean heat distribution on Earth’s heating rate
The impact of heat uptake and SST patterns on EEI variations
Total budget constraints on Earth’s Climate Sensitivity
Why is EEI increasing more than Earth System Models project?

Theme 2: Advances in global and regional estimation of ocean heat content

In-situ measurements and mapping techniques
Satellite-based measurements and data products
Ocean models and reanalysis
Hybrid and machine learning methods
Uncertainty quantification

Theme 3: Earth radiation at the TOA, surface and in the atmosphere

Understanding EEI variability and long-term change
Scrutinizing climate forcings and feedbacks using models and observations
Constraining climate predictions with EEI and Radiation data

Theme 4: Earth’s heat inventory – deep ocean, land, atmosphere and cryosphere

Advances in estimating Earth’s heat content change
Observational needs to close Earth’s heat inventory
The changing heat inventory and its implications

Theme 5: Energy and Water Cycle Linkages and their impact on EEI

Coupled analysis and modeling
Global and regional constraints
EEI impact on the water cycle
Impact of water cycle on EEI (convective clouds, aggregation, storm tracks etc.)

Theme 6: Future Ocean, ERB & EEI Observing Systems

Observational and scientific Gaps and Challenges
New missions, concepts, and continuity
Next US Decadal Survey

Here you can find the recommendations and workshop report of the 1st GEWEX Earth Energy Imbalance Assessment Workshop: https://www.wcrp-esa-eeia-2023.org/workshop-report

Meeting Logistics

Venue: TBD

Dates: June 1-5, 2026, 8:30am – 5:00pm, Pacific Time Zone (PT), exact times TBC.

Format: hybrid

Airports: Burbank-Hollywood Airport (BUR) is the closest airport to Pasadena. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the main airport in the county.

Accommodation tips: TBD

Local area information: TBD