Atmospheric Circulation and More The global energy balance and atmospheric motion mainly determine the circulation of the earth's atmosphere. There is a hierarchy of motion in atmospheric circulation. Each control can be broken down into smaller controlling factors. The global energy balance is an equal balance of short-wave radiation coming into the atmosphere and long-wave radiation going out of the atmosphere. This is called thermal equilibrium. The earth is at thermal equilibrium; however, there can have a surplus or deficit of energy in parts of the heat budget. If you have a net