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01.31.2025

Radiation Transport in Clouds

By W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer

January 2, 2025

Abstract

We briefly review the dominant role of clouds in Earth’s climate. The earliest observational studies of heat transfer through Earth’s atmosphere, for example, those of John Leslie around 1800, showed that clouds have a large effect on radiative heat transfer from Earth’s surface to space. Greenhouse gases also affect heat transfer, but much less than clouds. For example, “instantaneously doubling” CO2 concentrations, a 100% increase, only decreases radiation to space by about 1%. To increase solar heating of the Earth by a few percent, low cloud cover only needs to decrease by a few percent. The first half of this paper reviews observational facts about how clouds affect heat transfer. The second half gives a brief summary of the new 2n-stream radiation transfer theory for quantitatively analysing how clouds scatter radiation incident from outside the cloud, and how they emit thermal radiation generated by their particulates.

Download this important paper here: Radiation Transport in Clouds

This was first published at https://scienceofclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/SCC-2025-vWijngaarden-Happer.pdf

1.15.2025

Gases from Asthma Inhalers Cause Negligible Warming

Frits Byron Soepyan January 2025 Abstract: Various educational and medical institutions, as well as policymakers, have expressed concerns regarding the use of metered-dose inhalers to prevent or treat shortness of breath associated with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as these inhalers use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are greenhouse gases, as propellants. In response, “environmentally… Continue Reading

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