On Sep 30, 9:01 pm, "Don Libby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From: "Alastair" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Newsgroups: gmane.science.general.global-change
> To: "globalchange" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 6:20 AM
> Subject: [Global Change: 2904] Re: On the Threshold of Abrupt Climate Change
>
> >That at the
> >top of the atmosphere the incoming and outgoing radiation are kept in
> >balance by an invisible mechanism.
>
> Infrared is invisible.
> -dl
Yes, very good :-|) But it is not infrared radiation that sets the
balance. The the IR is saturated by CO2 and H2O so it is not able to
act as a mechanism. That is operated by a visible feature viz. clouds,
which adjusts the incoming radiation to match the fixed outgoing
radiation, but not very efficiently. That is why we get abrupt climate
change.
Cheers, Alastair.
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