Nevertheless, the contrasting behavior of the spectrally grey atmosphere, and of the atmosphere with the transparent spectral window, provides a clear indication of how the existence of a transparent spectral window decouples the stratospheric temperature from having to
maintain (all by itself) the
global energy balance set by the effective temperature Te.
«Because the solar - thermal
energy balance of Earth [at the top of the atmosphere (TOA)-RSB- is
maintained by radiative processes only, and because all the
global net advective
energy transports must equal zero, it follows that the
global average surface temperature must be determined in full by the radiative fluxes arising from the patterns of temperature and absorption of radiation.»