Forcing infrared rays with greenhouse gases
WA van Wijngaarden¹ and W. Happer
¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Canada
² Department of Physics, Princeton University, USA
June 18, 2019
An abridged version of this important paper has been published on arXiv preprint server hosted by Cornell University. The full version is provided here for the first time.
Download the full article here: Forcing Infrared Rays With Greenhouse Gases 2019 Amendment 3 7 2022
abstract
We look at how the atmospheric temperature and concentrations of five natural greenhouse gases, the most important on Earth, H, CO₂, O₃, NO, and ONLY control the thermal radiation fluxes, with no magnetic clouds. Earth out into space. Calculations based on line intensities in the HITRAN database alone, without absorption continuum, were used to evaluate fluxes and intensities for greenhouse gas concentrations similar to those in 2019. Intensities The calculated atmospheric peak spectral concordance with excellent quantification with satellite measurements at different latitudes. Also calculated are the forces per molecule in a hypothetical, optically thin atmosphere where there is negligible saturation of the absorption bands or interference of a greenhouse gas with other gases. Then, the forcings each molecule are of the order 10 − ²² W for H₂O, CO₂, O₃, NO, and CH. For atmospheric current concentrations, the burns per molecule of the abundant greenhouse gases HO and CO₂ are suppressed by four orders of magnitude relative to the thin optical values due to saturation of the absorption bands. strong absorption and interference from other greenhouse gases. Removal of less abundant greenhouse gases, O₃, NOR and JUST, was also prevented, but much less. For the present concentration, the density of each molecule is two to three orders of magnitude greater for O₃, N₂O, and CH, than that of H₂O or CO₂. Doubling the current concentration of CO₂, BRAIN, or JUST only adds a few percent.
Introduce
Greenhouse warming of the Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere is driven by the radiative force, F, the difference between thermal radiant energy from the black surface through a hypothetical, transparent atmosphere. and ux through an atmosphere of greenhouse gases, particles, and clouds, but with the same surface temperature[1]. Radiant force is usually specified in watts per square meter (W m − ²). The force depends on altitude, z, and how temperature and concentration of greenhouse gases change with altitude. The radiant heating rate R of the atmosphere is equal to the rate of change of pressure with altitude, R = dF / dz, and can be specified in units of W m − ² km − ¹. Over most of the atmosphere, R < 0, so thermal infrared radiation is a cooling mechanism that transmits absorbed solar energy back into space.
This article is written for readers with a strong background in quantitative science who know little about radiation transmission in the Earth’s atmosphere. So we include material that is common knowledge to a small number of experts, but little known to the larger scientific community.
Figure 1: The continuous blue curve is the annual mean of shortwaves up to fl ux of the sun (real visible, near infrared and ultraviolet) absorbed by Earth. The dashed red curve is the annual average of the ux (net long-wave infrared) emitted heat radiated into space by Earth. Excess solar energy absorbed in the tropics is transported to the poles by mass in the atmosphere and oceans. The data is from satellite observations[2]. Adapted from PhysicalGeography.net [3]The transmission of thermal radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere has many similarities to that in stars, where methods to model radiation transmission were first developed. [4]. But there are big differences. Because of the flow structure of greenhouse gases, the opacity of the Earth’s atmosphere has a much more complex frequency dependence than that of the stars. Over most of the volume of stars, radiation transmission is dominated by scattering in nearly fully ionized plasmas, with very little absorption. In the Earth’s atmosphere, thermal radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases, but the scattering is negligible. The molecules in the greenhouse emit radiation at a rate that depends on temperature, whether or not they are absorbing the radiation. Unlike the nearly isotropic heat from fusion sources in the cores of stars, the Sun’s heating of the Earth is substantially stronger in the tropics than near the poles, as if shown in Figure 1. Cyclic heat transport of the atmosphere and oceans, allowing the poles to emit more thermal energy into space than they absorb from the sun. The tropics emit less than they absorb. Integrated on the Earth’s surface, the incoming short-wave radiation from the Sun is approximately equal to the outgoing long-wave thermal radiation. But the surface-integrated fl uxes of Figure 1 are rarely precisely balanced. Changes in the average temperature of the atmosphere and ocean, due to transient radiative imbalances, are small because the heat capacity of the ocean is very large.
This paper focuses on the dashed red curve of Figure 1, the emission of thermal radiation to space. This is the aspect of the radiative balance that is most directly generated by changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. We discuss model atmospheres with average properties similar to those of the Earth in 2019. We mainly consider the “instantaneous” forced changes that occur when the concentration of one or more of them occurs. greenhouse gases change, but all other atmospheric conditions remain the same. Except for a brief discussion of regulating the temperature of the atmosphere to restore a hypothetical radiative equilibrium[5], we do not discuss many of the other responses that contribute to changes in the properties of the atmosphere. Important examples are changes in cloud cover and changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. Discussions on these important topics can be found in Schwartz’s papers[6, 7]Etminan et al.[8]Trenberth and Fasulo[9]Lindzen et al.[10]Myhre al.,[11, 12]Collins et al.[13]and Harde[14].
In 2019, the concentrations of the major greenhouse gases were so great, that each interfered with its own radiation transmission and that of the other greenhouse gases. The relative potency of greenhouse gases is best defined for a hypothetical, optical limit, discussed in the later sections of this paper, when the radiative force of each greenhouse gas is proportional. proportional to its column density.
Download the full article here: Forcing Infrared Rays With Greenhouse Gases 2019 Amendment 3 7 2022
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