Observations of seasonal variations in atmospheric greenhouse trapping and its enhancement at high sea surface temperature

Journal Article · Sat May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · Journal of Climate; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1993)006<0920:OOSVIA>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:6317216

Hallberg, R ^[1]; Inamdar, A K ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle (United States)
2. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA (United States)

The correlation between observed values of atmospheric greenhouse trapping and sea surface temperature is found to vary seasonally. Atmospheric greenhouse trapping is defined here as the difference between infrared emissions from the earth's surface and infrared emissions from the top of the atmosphere through cloudless skies. Infrared surface emissions are calculated from known sea surface temperatures; emissions from the top of the atmosphere are taken from direct satellite measurements. Atmospheric greenhouse trapping at the same sea surface temperature is greater in the winter than in the summer over temperate oceans. In subtropical latitudes, the opposite is true. At surface temperatures above approximately 298 K, atmospheric greenhouse trapping is found to increase even more rapidly from regions of lower sea surface temperature to regions of higher surface temperature than infrared surface emissions. The causes for this [open quotes]super[close quotes] greenhouse effect are explored, and four processes are found to contribute. Water vapor continuum absorption and thermodynamically controlled increases in water vapor concentration at constant relative humidity with increasing atmospheric temperature make significant contributions, but do not explain the entire super greenhouse effect. To explain the observations of atmospheric greenhouse trapping, the upper and middle troposphere, must be increasingly moist over the warmest sea surface temperatures, while the atmospheric temperature profile becomes increasingly unstable. Regions with these high sea surface temperatures are also increasingly subject to deep convection, which suggests that convection moistens the upper and middle troposphere in regions of convective activity relative to nonconvective regions, resulting in the super greenhouse effect. Dynamic processes, along with local thermodynamic processes, are required to explain the observed super greenhouse effect. 30 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 6317216
• Journal Information: Journal of Climate; (United States), Vol. 6:5; ISSN 0894-8755
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
SEAS
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
TROPOSPHERE
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
ABSORPTION
HUMIDITY
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
SURFACE WATERS
TRAPPING
WATER VAPOR
CLIMATIC CHANGE
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
FLUIDS
GASES
SORPTION
VAPORS
VARIATIONS
540110*
540120 - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring &amp; Transport- (1990-)