Climate and the Earth’s Radiation Budget

MAY 01, 1989

A NASA multisatellite experiment has determined that clouds cool the planet more than they heot it and identified them as a major source of uncertainty in three‐dimensional models used for studying the greenhouse effect and global warming.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881167

V. Ramanathan

Bruce R. Barkstrom

Edwin F. Harrison

Among the first payloads aboard satellites in the early 1960s were instruments for measuring the Earth’s radiation budget. The radiation budget consists of the incident and reflected sunlight and the long‐wave (infrared and far infrared) radiation emitted to space. The source for the recent spurt in scientific and public interest in the greenhouse effect and global warming is the alteration of the radiation budget by the anthropogenic emission of trace gases into the atmosphere.

This article is only available in PDF format

References

1. F. B. House, A. Gruber, G. E. Hunt, A. T. Mecherikunnel, Rev. Geophys. 24, 357 (1986).https://doi.org/RVGPB4
2. B. R. Barkstrom, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 65, 1170 (1984).https://doi.org/BAMIAT
3. R. D. Cess, G. L. Potter, Tellus 39A, 460 (1987).
4. T. H. Vonder Haar, A. H. Oort, J. Phys. Oceanogr. 3, 169 (1973).https://doi.org/JPYOBT
5. M. E. Schlesinger, J. F. B. Mitchell, Rev. Geophys. 25, 760 (1987).https://doi.org/RVGPB4
6. V. Ramanathan, J. Geophys. Res. 92, 4075 (1987).https://doi.org/JGREA2
7. R. Lee, B. R. Barkstrom, R. D. Cess, Appl. Opt. 26, 3090 (1987).https://doi.org/APOPAI
8. E. F. Harrison, D. R. Brooks, P. Minnis, B. A. Wielicki, W. F. Staylor, G. G. Gibson, D. F. Young, F. M. Denn, ERBE Science Team, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 69, 1144 (1988).https://doi.org/BAMIAT
9. V. Ramanathan, R. D. Cess, E. F. Harrison, P. Minnis, B. R. Barkstrom, E. Ahmad, D. Hartmann, Science 243, 57 (1989).https://doi.org/SCIEAS
10. J. S. Ellis, T. H. Vonder Haar, Atmospheric Sciences Report 240, Dept. Atmos. Sci., Colorado State U., Fort Collins (1976).
11. S. Manabe, J. Mahlman, J. Atmos. Sci. 33, 2185 (1976).https://doi.org/JAHSAK
12. F. S. Rowland, I. S. A. Isaksen, eds., The Changing Atmosphere, Wiley, New York (1988).
R. E. Dickinson, ed., The Geophysiology of Amazonia: Vegetation and Climate Interactions, Wiley, New York 1987);
see the articles by J. E. Lovelock, p. 11;
P. J. Crutzen, p. 107;
R. C. Harriss, p. 163.
13. V. Ramanathan, Science 240, 293 (1988).https://doi.org/SCIEAS
14. J. Hansen, I. Fung, A. Louis, D. Rind, S. Lebedeft, R. Rudey, G. Russell, J. Geophys. Res. 93, 9341 (1988).https://doi.org/JGREA2
15. R. T. Wetherald, S. Manabe, J. Atmos. Sci. 45, 1397 (1988).https://doi.org/JAHSAK
16. M. G. Tomasko et al., J. Geophys. Res. 85, 8187 (1980).https://doi.org/JGREA2
17. J. B. Pollack, O. B. Toon, R. Boese, J. Geophys. Res. 85, 8223 (1980).https://doi.org/JGREA2
18. R. J. Charlson, J. E. Lovelock, M. O. Andrae, S. G. Warren, Nature 326, 665 (1987).https://doi.org/NATUAS
19. P. J. Crutzen, L. Donner, V. Ramanathan, R. C. Srivastava, “Clouds, Chemistry and Climate,” research proposal submitted to NSF (1988).

More about the Authors

V. Ramanathan. University of Chicago.

Bruce R. Barkstrom. NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.

Edwin F. Harrison. NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia.