Global radiative equilibrium can be defined for an entire passive celestial system that does not supply its own energy, such as a planet.
Liou (2002, page 459) and other authors use the term global radiative equilibrium to refer to radiative exchange equilibrium globally between Earth and extraterrestrial space; such authors intend to mean that, in the theoretical, incoming solar radiation absorbed by Earths surface and its atmosphere would be equal to outgoing longwave radiation from Earths surface and its atmosphere. Prevost would say then that the Earth's surface and its atmosphere regarded as a whole were in absolute radiative equilibrium. Some texts, for example Satoh (2004), simply refer to "radiative equilibrium" in referring to global exchange radiative equilibrium.