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Longwave absorption coefficients of water vapor and carbon dioxide. For wavelengths near 15 microns (15 μm in top scale), where Earth's surface emits strongly, CO 2 is a much stronger absorber than water vapor. Greenhouse gases absorb and emit longwave radiation within specific ranges of wavelengths (organized as spectral lines or bands). [15]
Through this effect, a runaway feedback process may have removed much carbon dioxide and water vapor from the atmosphere and cooled the planet. Water condenses on the surface, leading to carbon dioxide dissolving and chemically binding to minerals. This reduced the greenhouse effect, lowering the temperature and causing more water to condense.
Water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas overall, being responsible for 41–67% of the greenhouse effect, [32] [33] but its global concentrations are not directly affected by human activity. While local water vapor concentrations can be affected by developments such as irrigation , it has little impact on the global scale due to its ...
Water vapor is an important greenhouse gas [18] [19] owing to the presence of the hydroxyl bond which strongly absorbs in the infra-red. Water vapor is the "working medium" of the atmospheric thermodynamic engine which transforms heat energy from sun irradiation into mechanical energy in the form of winds.
Absorption cross sections for CO2 (green) and water vapour (purple). The wavelengths most relevant to climate change are those where the green plot crosses the upper horizontal line, representing a CO2 level somewhat larger than the current concentration. CO 2 absorbs the ground's thermal radiation mainly at wavelengths between 13 and 17 micron ...
Radiative forcing is defined in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report as follows: "The change in the net, downward minus upward, radiative flux (expressed in W/m 2) due to a change in an external driver of climate change, such as a change in the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2), the concentration of volcanic aerosols or the output of the Sun." [3]: 2245
The principal natural greenhouse gases in order of their importance are water vapor H 2 O, carbon dioxide CO 2, ozone O 3, methane CH 4 and nitrous oxide N 2 O. The concentration of the least common of these, N 2 O, is about 400 ppb (by volume). [clarification needed] [9] Other gases
The equilibrium solution with ε=0.82. The increase by Δε=0.04 corresponds to doubling carbon dioxide and the associated positive feedback on water vapor. The equilibrium solution with no greenhouse effect: ε=0. The infrared flux density out of the top of the atmosphere is computed as: