Tropospheric radiative forcing of CH{sub 4}
We have evaluated the tropospheric radiative forcing of CH{sub 4} in the 0-3000 cm{sup {minus}1} wavenumber range and compared this with prior published calculations. The atmospheric test cases involved perturbed methane scenarios in both a McClatchey mid latitude, summer, clear sky approximation, model atmosphere, as well as a globally and seasonally averaged model atmosphere containing a representative cloud distribution. The scenarios involved pure CH{sub 4} radiative forcing and CH{sub 4} plus a mixture of H{sub 2}O, CO{sub 2}, O{sub 3}, and N{sub 2}O. The IR radiative forcing was calculated using a correlated k-distribution transmission model. The major purposes of this paper are to first, use the correlated k-distribution model to calculate the tropospheric radiative forcing for CH{sub 4}, as the only radiatively active gas, and in a mixture with H{sub 2}O, CO{sub 2}, O{sub 3}, and N{sub 2}O, for a McClatchey mid-latitude summer, clear-sky model atmosphere, and to compare the results to those obtained in the studies mentioned above. Second, we will calculate the tropospheric methane forcing in a globally and annually averaged atmosphere with and without a representative cloud distribution in order to validate the conjecture given in IPCC (1990) that the inclusion of clouds in the forcing calculations results in forcing values which are approximately 20 percent less than those obtained using clear sky approximations.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Gas Research Inst., Chicago, IL (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10149229
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-116533; ON: DE94011628; CNN: 5091-254-2167
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Apr 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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