Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Plan

Technical Report · Thu Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7004715· OSTI ID:7004715

In order to understand energy's role in anthropogenic global climate change, significant reliance is being placed on General Circulation Models (GCMs). A major goal of the Department is to foster the development of GCMs capable of predicting the timing and magnitude of greenhouse gas-induced global warming and the regional effects of such warming. DOE research has revealed that cloud radiative feedback is the single most important effect determining the magnitude of possible climate responses to human activity. However, cloud radiative forcing and feedbacks are not understood at the levels needed for reliable climate prediction. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program will contribute to the DOE goal by improving the treatment of cloud radiative forcing and feedbacks in GCMs. Two issues will be addressed: the radiation budget and its spectral dependence and the radiative and other properties of clouds. Understanding cloud properties and how to predict them is critical because cloud properties may very well change as climate changes. The experimental objective of the ARM Program is to characterize empirically the radiative processes in the Earth's atmosphere with improved resolution and accuracy. A key to this characterization is the effective treatment of cloud formation and cloud properties in GCMs. Through this characterization of radiative properties, it will be possible to understand both the forcing and feedback effects. GCM modelers will then be able to better identify the best approaches to improved parameterizations of radiative transfer effects. This is expected to greatly improve the accuracy of long-term, GCM predictions and the efficacy of those predictions at the important regional scale, as the research community and DOE attempt to understand the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the Earth's climate. 153 refs., 24 figs., 6 tabs.

• Research Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (USA). Atmospheric and Climate Research Div.
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/ER
• OSTI ID: 7004715
• Report Number(s): DOE/ER-0441; ON: DE90008108
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CLIMATES
CLOUDS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
MANAGEMENT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLANNING
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
RADIATIONS
SOLAR RADIATION
STELLAR RADIATION