  It is well known that evaporative cooling of Earth's surface water reduces
the amount of radiation that goes into sensible heat, namely the portion of
radiation that produces higher temperatures. However, a rigorous use of
long-term hydrologic measurements and the related theories of hydrologic
partitioning have not yet been fully exploited to quantify these effects on
climate. Here, we show that the Budyko's curve, a well-known and efficient
framework for water balance estimation, can be effectively utilized to
partition the surface energy fluxes by expressing the long-term evaporative
fraction as a function of the dryness index. The combination of this energy
partitioning method with hydrological observations allows us to estimate the
surface energy components at watershed and continental scales. Analyzing
climate model outputs through this new lens reveals energy biases due to
inaccurate parameterization of hydrological and atmospheric processes, offering
insight into model parameterization and providing useful information for
improving climate projections.
