Climate Letter #2046

I have been grapling with an idea lately that is not commonly discussed but seems like it should be interesting as an important factor in the study of climate change. I am not sure about whether I am handling it properly, but see no harm in putting the details in writing so other people can play with it too, if so disposed. Anyone who is familiar with the basics of energy radiation can do this. One conclusion I have come up with, and feel fairly confident must be right, is this: anything in particular, or any event that causes surface temperatures to warm, at any location and for any reason, begets still more warming as a feedback. By surface temperatures I mean the liquid or solid surfaces of the globe itself, not the air. Surfaces are either warming or cooling all the time, slowly or rapidly, by a little or a lot. Cooling of the surface might well be seen as causing the same consequences as warming, but in the reverse direction.

The idea begins with the understanding that when a surface grows warmer for some reason, any reason at all, no matter where the warming energy comes from, (e.g., lava flows may be bringing heat up to the surface from below), the surface will quickly respond by emitting more photons into the air above than it did before the event. The ones emitted will all be headed toward space, unless interrupted. With interruption in mind, we must now introduce the reality of greenhouse gases into the picture. Most of them, with the exception of water vapor, are just sitting still in the atmosphere, permeating every bit of atmospheric residence with a relatively small but fairly constant percentage of content. All of the gases steadily trap photons of energy, with each gas specializing in those of certain wavelengths, where a large number of natural differences are noteworthy. Some inbound photons are trapped but the outbound ones are most important as markers of the greenhouse effect. Whenever a molecule of greenhouse gas traps a photon it will quickly shed one of its own making, losing the same amount of energy that was gained, headed away in no particular direction. Half will continue the journey toward space and half will be turned back toward the surface. The same molecule must be able to do this repeatedly, without going anywhere, and every molecule of every GHG is always in play. Most are positioned sort of like goaltenders who must be ready to keep on doing the same thing day after day, year after year, for a very long time

My basic idea leads to the belief that when more photons are coming off the surface, because the surface has gotten warmer, each molecule of every regular GHG is likely to become more busy, trapping and emitting, than it was before. Half of its emissions will be headed back toward the surface, and the ones that land will cause the surface to heat up even more, an immediate consequence of which will be to emit more photons of its own making. Half of these will at once be headed back toward space while the other half can burrow into the subsurface and cause it to warm up for awhile before some of their numbers reappear at the surface. The whole process means that the initial warming of the surface begets more warming because of the activity and contribution of every GHG molecule. It also means that the strength, or capability, of each of these molecules cannot be tightly limited. If the surface warming continues, and the number of molecules of any or all of the GHGs remains stationary, or possibly declines, then the molecules of some gases will be getting busier than others. This is where questions arise that are not so easy to resolve.

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If this last point is really the case, then what difference does it make whether a particular kind of GHG in increasing at a fast rate, a slow rate, or not at all?  The molecules of each gas will be getting more or less busy as a way of compensating, and all of the photons emitted from the surface that can be trapped will always be trapped, no more and no less.  If the molecules of a rapidly increasing gas become less active they should not cause any more feedback at the surface than the molecules of a slowly-increasing gas that has become more active.  Everything becomes relative.  Is this really true?  Are there some limits at some point?  If it is true, then it seems that all greenhouse gases beget extra warming at the surface in proportions that remain fixed, regardless of changes in the quantity of gas outstanding.  The fixed proportions would be established by the way each gas is separately linked to the radiation bands.  Beyond that, any change in the quantity of gas outstanding would be perhaps completely offset by a change in how busy its individual molecules can and do become.  Knowing the truth could have implications for a number of aspects of climate science. I am not yet satisfied.

Carl

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