期刊名称:Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography
电子版ISSN:1600-0870
出版年度:2003
卷号:55
期号:4
页码:328-337
DOI:10.3402/tellusa.v55i4.12101
摘要:We model the wavelength-dependent absorption of atmospheric gases by assuming constant massabsorption coefficients in finite-width spectral bands. Such a semigray atmosphere is analyticallysolved by a discrete ordinate method. The general solution is analyzed for a water vapor saturatedatmosphere that also contains a carbon dioxide-like absorbing gas in the infrared. A multiple stableequilibrium with a relative upper limit in the outgoing long-wave radiation is found. Differing fromprevious radiative–convective models, we find that the amount of carbon dioxide strongly modifiesthe value of this relative upper limit. This result is also obtained in a gray (i.e., equal absorption ofradiation at all infrared wavelengths) water vapor saturated atmosphere. The destabilizing effect ofcarbon dioxide implies that massive carbon dioxide atmospheres are more likely to reach a runawaygreenhouse state than thin carbon dioxide ones.