The greenhouse earth: A view from space

被引:33
作者
Harries, JE
机构
关键词
climate feed-back processes; clouds; Earth radiation budget; global warming; green house effect; radiative forcing; water vapour;
D O I
10.1002/qj.49712253202
中图分类号
P4 [大气科学(气象学)];
学科分类号
0706 ; 070601 ;
摘要
The natural greenhouse effect of the Earth is strongly influenced by the radiative effects of water vapour and clouds in the atmosphere, which control the energy absorbed from the sun, and that lost through thermal emission to space. Any perturbations to the climate balance, for example through so-called 'radiative forcing' due to increasing CO2 amounts, variations in solar constant, or other causes, can be amplified by the feedback processes that involve water in its various phases. The radiative cooling of the Earth in the absence of clouds has recently been shown to be dominated by emission from upper-tropospheric water vapour, in the far infrared portion of the spectrum, and this is illustrated: observations of this radiative flux, and of the distribution of water vapour in the upper troposphere, are urgently needed. The role of clouds is discussed, and it is noted that their response to global warming is not presently unambiguously determined with available models, due to the complexity of competing processes: again, as in the cloud-free case, more accurate global observations are needed. The paper is illustrated by data from satellite experiments, most notably the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment sponsored by NASA.
引用
收藏
页码:799 / 818
页数:20
相关论文
共 23 条
[11]  
HARTMANN DL, 1983, AEROSOL CLOUD CLIMAT
[12]  
Houghton J. T., 1994, Climate Change 1994: Radiative Forcing of Climate Change and an Evaluation of the IPCC 1992 IS92 Emission Scenarios
[13]  
HOUGHTON JT, 1986, PHYSICS ATMOSPHERES
[14]   THE VARIABLE EFFECT OF CLOUDS ON ATMOSPHERIC ABSORPTION OF SOLAR-RADIATION [J].
LI, ZQ ;
BARKER, HW ;
MOREAU, L .
NATURE, 1995, 376 (6540) :486-490
[15]   WARM POOL HEAT-BUDGET AND SHORTWAVE CLOUD FORCING - A MISSING PHYSICS [J].
RAMANATHAN, V ;
SUBASILAR, B ;
ZHANG, GJ ;
CONANT, W ;
CESS, RD ;
KIEHL, JT ;
GRASSL, H ;
SHI, L .
SCIENCE, 1995, 267 (5197) :499-503
[16]   THE HALOGEN OCCULTATION EXPERIMENT [J].
RUSSELL, JM ;
GORDLEY, LL ;
PARK, JH ;
DRAYSON, SR ;
HESKETH, WD ;
CICERONE, RJ ;
TUCK, AF ;
FREDERICK, JE ;
HARRIES, JE ;
CRUTZEN, PJ .
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, 1993, 98 (D6) :10777-10797
[17]  
SCHIFFER RA, 1983, B AM METEOROL SOC, V64, P779
[18]  
SHINE KP, 1991, J ATMOS SCI, V48, P1513, DOI 10.1175/1520-0469(1991)048<1513:OTCOTR>2.0.CO
[19]  
2
[20]   WATER-VAPOR AND GREENHOUSE TRAPPING - THE ROLE OF FAR-INFRARED ABSORPTION [J].
SINHA, A ;
HARRIES, JE .
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 1995, 22 (16) :2147-2150