Solar radiation longwave

Fig. 17-1 The global climate system, (a) Energy fluxes, including incoming solar radiation, reflected radiation, emitted longwave radiation (from an effective altitude of ca. 6 km), and atmospheric and oceanic heat flux toward the polar regions, (b) The atmospheric circulation corresponding to part (a). Refer back to Fig. 7-4 and associated text for a discussion of the general circulation.

GHG Greenhouse gas any trace gas that does not absorb incoming solar radiation but does absorb longwave radiation emitted or reflected from the Earth s surface. The... 

From the standpoint of regional tropospheric chemistry—which involves near-surface abundances of ozone, wet and dry deposition of acidic species, and transport and lifetimes of trace atmospheric constituents—the climate variables of interest include the variability of distributions of temperature, precipitation, clouds, and boundary-layer meteorology. In the global sense, these variables are controlled by surface and atmospheric temperature and water content. The distributions of temperature and water vapor are in turn controlled by solar and longwave radiation transfer involving the surface and the atmosphere. 

Those gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, tropospheric ozone, nitrous oxide, and methane, that are transparent to solar radiation but opaque to longwave... 

Approximately 350 W/m of solar radiation would be received at this hypothetical Earth s surface. The surface reflects approximately 35% of received radiation. Use the Stefan-Boltzmann law, Eq. (4.53), to solve for T, by equating the absorbed shortwave solar radiation to the rate of longwave radiation ... 

Figure 1 illustrates the structure of the model. Refer to the list of symbols for definitions. The low latitude cell (latitude below TON, subscript 1) and the polar cell (subscript 2) have surface temperatures Tj, relative surface areas gi, surface albedos a, incoming solar radiation at the surface Fi, ospheric longwave emissivity parameter P, explained below, and poleward heat advection Dj. The two surface temperatures are die dependent variables of the model. Denote die area weighted average of any quantity Q by = giQi + gzQzt and let AQ = Q1-Q2 denote Ae meridional contrast. 

These two equations state that, in each cell, the surface radiates away as much heat (right hand side) as it receives (left hand side). The term involving F on the left hand side is the solar radiation absorbed at the surface. The downwelling longwave radiation from the atmosphere is a fraction p of die energy radiated upward by the surface plus half the meridional transport D. This result is taken from a toy model of the radiative equilibrium between the atmosphere and the surface, Thorndike 1992. P is a measure of die longwave emissivity of the atmosphere. In today s atmosphere P is... 

Fig. 1. The two cell model includes solar radiation (l-a)F, blackbody radiation from the surface A+BT, longwave atmospheric radiation P(A+BT), and horizontal advection D. The longwave radiation from the atmosphere to space does not figure into the model.

Pollutant effects on the atmosphere include increased parhculate matter, which decreases visibility and inhibits incoming solar radiahon, and increased gaseous pollutant concentrations, which absorb longwave radiation and increase surface temperatures. For a detailed discussion of visibility effects, see Chapter 10. 

FIGURE 4 Spectral distribution of solar (shortwave) and terrestrial (longwave) radiation fields. Also shown are the approximate shapes and positions of the scattering and absorption features of the Earth s atmosphere. 

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