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).
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