by Judith Curry
The IPCC defines climate sensitivity as “a metric used to characterise the response of the global climate system to a given forcing. It is broadly defined as the equilibrium global mean surface temperature change following a doubling of atmospheric CO2concentration.”
Posted in Greenhouse effect
by Judith Curry
The calculation of atmospheric radiative fluxes is central to any argument related to the atmospheric greenhouse/Tyndall gas effect. Atmospheric radiative transfer models rank among the most robust components of climate model, in terms of having a rigorous theoretical foundation and extensive experimental validation both in the laboratory and from field measurements. However, I have not found much in the way of actually explaining how atmospheric radiative transfer models work and why we should have confidence in them (at the level of technical blogospheric discourse). In this post, I lay out some of the topics that I think need to be addressed in such an explanation regarding infrared radiative transfer. Given my limited time this week, I mainly frame the problem here and provide some information to start a dialogue on this topic, I hope that other experts participating can fill in (and I will update the main post).
Posted in climate models, Greenhouse effect
by Judith Curry
On the previous two threads, we had a lively, rollicking, illuminating and often frustrating discussion on the physics of the greenhouse effect. On this thread, I try to synthesize the main issues and arguments that were made and pull some of what I regard to be the highlights from the comments.
Posted in Greenhouse effect
by Judith Curry
The skeptics thread has shown that it is plausible to be skeptical of a number of issues regarding the findings of IPCC WG1. However, whether atmospheric gases such as CO2 (and H20, CH4, and others) warm the planet is not an issue where skepticism is plausible.
Posted in Greenhouse effect
