Thermal Equilibrium of the Atmosphere with a Given Distribution of Relative Humidity

"Thermal Equilibrium of the Atmosphere with a Given Distribution of Relative Humidity" is a scientific article published by Syukuro Manabe and Richard Wetherald (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory) in 1967 in Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences and dedicated to climate modelling. It is often considered to be the most influential paper in history of climate change science: the climate model that it describes is indeed the first one to address the main physical mechanisms that determine the influence of carbon dioxide (CO2) on Earth surface temperature through greenhouse effect.[1][2][3][4]

Manabe and Wetherald one-dimension climate radiative-convective model includes an accurate spectroscopy of CO2, ozone and water vapor, atmospheric convection and water vapor feedback. When a doubling CO2 atmospheric concentration is given as input to the model, it gives a temperature shift (equilibrium climate sensitivity) of +2.4 °C, which is consistent with modern estimates, such as those published in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report.[1][3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Forster, Piers (7 October 2021). "The most influential climate science paper of all time". The Conversation.
  2. ^ Jeevanjee, Nadir; Held, Isaac; Ramaswamy, V. (November 2022). "Manabe's Radiative–Convective Equilibrium". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 103 (11): E2559-E2569. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0351.1.
  3. ^ a b Mitchell, John (7 July 2015). "Prof John Mitchell: How a 1967 study greatly influenced climate change science". Carbon Brief. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  4. ^ Ramanathan, Veerabhadran; Coakley, James (1978). "Climate modeling through radiative-convective models". Reviews of Geophysics. 16 (4): 465–489. doi:10.1029/RG016i004p00465.