Posted by Richard on March 16, 2008, 7:43 am
86.151.135.X
Nigel, this might be of interest.
The radiative forcing due to clouds and water vapor
Quote from Page 130
5.3.2 Global cloud forcing: do clouds heat or cool the planet?
The five-year global mean energy budgets for clear and cloudy regions are illustrated
in Figure 5.4. Clouds reduce the absorbed solar radiation by 48 W m−2(Cs =
−48Wm−2) while enhancing the greenhouse effect by 30Wm−2 (Cl = 30Wm−2),
and therefore clouds cool the global surface–atmosphere system by 18Wm−2(C =
−18Wm−2) on average. The mean value of C is several times the 4Wm−2 heating
expected from doubling of CO2 and thus Earth would probably be substantially
warmer without clouds.
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