Articles | Volume 24, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6375-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6375-2024
ACP Letters
 | Highlight paper
 | 
30 May 2024
ACP Letters | Highlight paper |  | 30 May 2024

Direct observational evidence from space of the effect of CO2 increase on longwave spectral radiances: the unique role of high-spectral-resolution measurements

João Teixeira, R. Chris Wilson, and Heidar Th. Thrastarson

Related authors

Evaluation of Total Column Water Vapour Products from Satellite Observations and Reanalyses within the GEWEX Water Vapor Assessment
Tim Trent, Marc Schroeder, Shu-Peng Ho, Steffen Beirle, Ralf Bennartz, Eva Borbas, Christian Borger, Helene Brogniez, Xavier Calbet, Elisa Castelli, Gilbert P. Compo, Wesley Ebisuzaki, Ulrike Falk, Frank Fell, John Forsythe, Hans Hersbach, Misako Kachi, Shinya Kobayashi, Robert E. Kursinsk, Diego Loyola, Zhengzao Luo, Johannes K. Nielsen, Enzo Papandrea, Laurence Picon, Rene Preusker, Anthony Reale, Lei Shi, Laura Slivinski, Joao Teixeira, Tom Vonder Haar, and Thomas Wagner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2808,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2808, 2023
Short summary
Improving the representation of shallow cumulus convection with the simplified-higher-order-closure–mass-flux (SHOC+MF v1.0) approach
Maria J. Chinita, Mikael Witte, Marcin J. Kurowski, Joao Teixeira, Kay Suselj, Georgios Matheou, and Peter Bogenschutz
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 1909–1924, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-1909-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-1909-2023, 2023
Short summary
ESD Reviews: Climate feedbacks in the Earth system and prospects for their evaluation
Christoph Heinze, Veronika Eyring, Pierre Friedlingstein, Colin Jones, Yves Balkanski, William Collins, Thierry Fichefet, Shuang Gao, Alex Hall, Detelina Ivanova, Wolfgang Knorr, Reto Knutti, Alexander Löw, Michael Ponater, Martin G. Schultz, Michael Schulz, Pier Siebesma, Joao Teixeira, George Tselioudis, and Martin Vancoppenolle
Earth Syst. Dynam., 10, 379–452, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-379-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-379-2019, 2019
Short summary
Variability of bulk water vapor content in the marine cloudy boundary layers from microwave and near-infrared imagery
Luis F. Millán, Matthew D. Lebsock, and Joao Teixeira
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8491–8502, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8491-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8491-2019, 2019
Short summary
Retrievals of tropospheric ozone profiles from the synergism of AIRS and OMI: methodology and validation
Dejian Fu, Susan S. Kulawik, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, Kevin W. Bowman, John R. Worden, Annmarie Eldering, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Joao Teixeira, Fredrick W. Irion, Robert L. Herman, Gregory B. Osterman, Xiong Liu, Pieternel F. Levelt, Anne M. Thompson, and Ming Luo
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5587–5605, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5587-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5587-2018, 2018

Related subject area

Subject: Radiation | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Uncertainty in simulated brightness temperature due to sensitivity to atmospheric gas spectroscopic parameters from the centimeter- to submillimeter-wave range
Donatello Gallucci, Domenico Cimini, Emma Turner, Stuart Fox, Philip W. Rosenkranz, Mikhail Y. Tretyakov, Vinia Mattioli, Salvatore Larosa, and Filomena Romano
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7283–7308, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7283-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7283-2024, 2024
Short summary
LIME: Lunar Irradiance Model of ESA, a new tool for absolute radiometric calibration using the Moon
Carlos Toledano, Sarah Taylor, África Barreto, Stefan Adriaensen, Alberto Berjón, Agnieszka Bialek, Ramiro González, Emma Woolliams, and Marc Bouvet
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3649–3671, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3649-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3649-2024, 2024
Short summary
Influence of cloud retrieval errors due to three-dimensional radiative effects on calculations of broadband shortwave cloud radiative effect
Adeleke S. Ademakinwa, Zahid H. Tushar, Jianyu Zheng, Chenxi Wang, Sanjay Purushotham, Jianwu Wang, Kerry G. Meyer, Tamas Várnai, and Zhibo Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3093–3114, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3093-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3093-2024, 2024
Short summary
Evaluating the Representation of Arctic Cirrus Solar Radiative Effects in the IFS with Airborne Measurements
Johannes Röttenbacher, André Ehrlich, Hanno Müller, Florian Ewald, Anna E. Luebke, Benjamin Kirbus, Robin J. Hogan, and Manfred Wendisch
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-281,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-281, 2024
Short summary
Estimation of 1 km downwelling shortwave radiation over the Tibetan Plateau under all-sky conditions
Peizhen Li, Lei Zhong, Yaoming Ma, Yunfei Fu, Meilin Cheng, Xian Wang, Yuting Qi, and Zixin Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9265–9285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9265-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9265-2023, 2023
Short summary

Cited articles

AIRS project: AIRS/Aqua L1B Infrared (IR) geolocated and calibrated radiances V005, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) [data set], Greenbelt, MD, USA, https://doi.org/10.5067/YZEXEVN4JGGJ, 2007. 
AIRS Science Team and Teixeira, J.: AIRS/Aqua L2 Standard Physical Retrieval (AIRS+AMSU) V006, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), Greenbelt, MD, USA, https://doi.org/10.5067/Aqua/AIRS/DATA201, 2013. 
Archer, D. and Pierrehumbert, R. (Eds.): The warming papers: The scientific foundation for the climate change forecast, John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA, 432 pp., ISBN: 978-1-405-19616-1, 2011. 
Aumann, H. H., Chahine, M. T., Gautier, C., Goldberg, M. D., Kalnay, E., McMillin, L. M., Revercomb, H., Rosenkranz, P. W., Smith, W. L., Staelin, D. H., Strow, L. L., and Susskind, J.: AIRS/AMSU/HSB on the Aqua mission: design, science objectives, data products, and processing systems, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 41, 253–264, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2002.808356, 2003. 
Aumann, H. H., Broberg, S., Elliott, D., Gaiser, S., and Gregorich, D.: Three years of atmospheric infrared sounder radiometric calibration validation using sea surface temperatures, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 111, D16S90, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006822, 2006. 
Download
Executive editor
The core element of climate change is the sensitivity of the Earth's climate system to the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing terrestrial radiation at the top of the atmosphere. CO2 is one of the key atmospheric parameters controlling the outgoing longwave radiation. In this paper, hyper-spectral satellite data of the outgoing long wave radiation from a decade of observations are successfully used for the first time to disentangle the radiative effect of CO2 increase from those of other relevant parameters such as temperature and water vapour variations. The paper demonstrates convincingly that the observed radiative changes agree excellently with theoretical predictions of outgoing long wave radiation changes due to the observed CO2 increase. While solely based on observations from space, these results confirm a fundamental theoretical underpinning of the science of global warming.
Short summary
This paper presents direct evidence from space (solely based on observations) that CO2 increase leads to the theoretically expected effects on longwave spectral radiances. This is achieved by using a methodology that allows us to isolate the CO2 effects from the temperature and water vapor effects. By searching for ensembles of temperature and water vapor profiles that are similar to each other but have different values of CO2, it is possible to estimate the direct effects of CO2 on the spectra.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint