Variations in water vapor continuum radiative transfer with atmospheric conditions

34Citations
Citations of this article
26Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

A newly formulated empirical water vapor continuum (the BPS continuum) is employed, in conjunction with ERA-40 data, to advance the understanding of how variations in the water vapor profile can alter the impact of the continuum on the Earth's clear-sky radiation budget. Three metrics are investigated: outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), Longwave surface downwelling radiation (SDR) and shortwave absorption (SWA). We have also performed a detailed geographical analysis on the impact of the BPS continuum upon these metrics and compared the results to those predicted by the commonly used MT CKD model. The globally averaged differences in these metrics when calculated with MT CKD 2.5 versus BPS were found to be 0.1%, 0.4% and 0.8% for OLR, SDR and SWA respectively. Furthermore, the impact of uncertainty upon these calculations is explored using the uncertainty estimates of the BPS model. The radiative response of the continuum to global changes in atmospheric temperature and water vapor content are also investigated. For the latter, the continuum accounts for up to 35% of the change in OLR and 65% of the change in SDR, brought about by an increase in water vapor in the tropics. © 2012. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

References Powered by Scopus

The ERA-40 re-analysis

6151Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Atmospheric radiative transfer modeling: A summary of the AER codes

1539Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Earth's global energy budget

1332Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

The GFDL Global Atmosphere and Land Model AM4.0/LM4.0: 2. Model Description, Sensitivity Studies, and Tuning Strategies

237Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The global energy balance as represented in CMIP6 climate models

128Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Recent advances in collisional effects on spectra of molecular gases and their practical consequences

99Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Paynter, D., & Ramaswamy, V. (2012). Variations in water vapor continuum radiative transfer with atmospheric conditions. Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, 117(16). https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JD017504

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

Researcher 9

47%

Professor / Associate Prof. 5

26%

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 5

26%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Earth and Planetary Sciences 11

55%

Physics and Astronomy 7

35%

Arts and Humanities 1

5%

Materials Science 1

5%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free