Factors affecting Earth’s temperature
Douglas Lightfoot and Gerald Ratzer
October 28, 2024
1. Introduction
People have always been interested in the weather and the climate. They have always made observations and recorded them to learn how they work. As a result, we know much about how the Earth’s atmosphere works.
We know specific facts about the Earth’s atmosphere and how it functions to maintain a temperature suitable for current lifeforms. The Sun is the primary temperature controller, and its energy output goes up and down in cycles, followed by the Earth’s temperature. The amount of the Sun’s energy reaching Earth also depends on the Milankovitch cycles that result from the Earth’s orbit changing from almost circular to strongly elliptical. Underwater volcanism has a secondary warming effect on the Earth’s atmosphere; some are intermittently cyclical.
The results of observations of the Earth’s atmosphere cannot be overestimated. For example, the Sun sends enormous energy to the Earth every day. The necessary cooling system is discussed in detail.
How do radiation profiles and cross-sections of water vapor and carbon dioxide molecules affect the cooling system or provide warming?
Comments are welcome.
2. The role of water vapor is to keep the Earth cool enough for current life forms.
Figure 1 below shows that the Earth would be too hot without cooling. Dr. Roy Spencer, a meteorologist, produced this figure in his 2008 book Climate Confusion [1]. Without cooling, the Earth’s temperature would be an estimated 60oC rather than 14 to 15oC. Meteorologists rely on observations in the Earth’s atmosphere in their work.
Figure 1. From Climate Confusion, page 55
Dr. Spencer states that heat is moved from where there is more to where there is less, including around the Earth and into space. This is done through a dynamic system, the water cycle, and keeps the Earth’s temperature within a reasonable range.
3. The Earth’s water cycle
The water cycle in the figure below [2] is adapted to show that heat is released to flow to space when water vapor condenses to form clouds. The heat flows to space as infrared radiation. The amount of heat sent to space equals the amount of heat from the Sun absorbed by the Earth to maintain the Earth's temperature at a habitable level for current life forms to exist.
Figure 2 The Earth's water cycle adapted to show heat sent to space. The various observed water flows are identified. The action of thunderstorms is included in “Precipitation.” © Lightfoot and Ratzer 2024 2
4. Thunderstorms
Thunderstorms are dynamic and last only a short time, but according to Reference [3], approximately 1800 are in progress worldwide daily at any given time. A thunderstorm is starting to form on the left side of Figure 3. A rising column of warm, moisture-laden air in the Towering Cumulus Stage is beginning to form, carrying the air to an elevation cold enough to condense the water vapor. The dew point where condensation starts is approximately 4,000 feet. As the water vapor condenses in the Mature Stage, it releases heat that further enhances the updraft and carries the top above 40,000 feet (12.2 km). As the updraft continues in the Mature stage, the air in the updraft is replaced by strong winds that bring air in at the surface to replace that in the updraft. Water from the condensation is beginning to coalesce into drops of water that fall as rain. The heat (enthalpy) of the water vapor condensing is released and flows unhindered to space. This heat release to space reduces the upward driving force, and the thunderstorm moves into the Dissipating stage. The cloud disperses as the water drops as rain. Often, the rainfall is heavy during the last two stages [4].
Thunderstorms provide a significant flow of heat away from Earth.
The caption under the figure in the URL [5] is:
“In general, cumulonimbus require moisture, an unstable air mass, and a lifting force in order to form. Cumulonimbus typically go three stages: the developing stage, the mature stage (where the main cloud may reach supercell status in favorable conditions), and the dissipation stage. The average thunderstorm has a 24 km diameter and a height of approximately 12.2km (40,000 feet). Depending on the conditions present in the atmosphere, these three stages take an average of 30 minutes to go through.”
5. The prevalence of thunderstorms in the Tropics.
The Tropics are defined as 23.5oN (Tropic of Cancer) to 23.5oS (Tropic of Capricorn). Their area represents 39.8% of the Earth’s surface and almost three-quarters of the atmosphere’s water vapor. In contrast, the Arctic and Antarctic areas at the Poles have an estimated 0.9% of the atmosphere’s water vapor.
Water is recycled in the approximately 1800 thunderstorms [6] that occur daily. Each thunderstorm sends an enormous amount of energy to space. This is evident because it rains daily in many parts of the tropics, hence the term “Tropical rainforest.” There is a rainforest on the northwest coast of North America. The mountains stop the moisture-laden air, which must drop its moisture before it rises above them to flow east.
Most of the Earth’s thunderstorms occur in the Tropics [7], as in Figure 4.
Figure 4. The location of most thunderstorms is in the Tropics.
6. The amount of heat removed from Earth by the evaporation of water by Hurricane Helene
There does not appear to be an estimate of the average amount of heat released to space by the average thunderstorm. However, it is estimated that the recent Hurricane Helene dropped 40 trillion US gallons of rain on the southeast corner of the U.S. [8]. The latent heat of water evaporation is 2256 kilojoules/kg, and there are 3.78 liters per US gallon. Each liter of water weighs one kilogram.
Thus, the heat released to space was 40,000,000,000,000 x 3.78 x 2256= 341,107,200,000,000,000 kilojoules. Compared with the World oil consumption in 2013, at 6,118,000 Kilojoules per barrel of oil, the heat released to space is equivalent in barrels of oil to 55,754,691,075.51 barrels.
World daily oil demand in 2023 was 101.2 million barrels or 36,938,000,000 barrels annually.
Thus, the energy released to space by Hurricane Helene was 1.5 times the energy in annual world oil consumption. The accuracy of the estimate of the amount of water dropped by Hurricane Helene is not known. Nevertheless, it gives an idea of the immense amount of heat sent to space by water to keep the Earth cool by just one hurricane.
Most of the heat from the Earth comes out of the Tropics.
7. Radiation profile recorded by satellite at Guam in the Tropics
Here is Howard Hayden's graph of Guam's radiation profile. The black lines in this graph are correct with 100% certainty. The red lines are asking to explain how certain features are related to the thermodynamics of the atmosphere.
This graph presents unanswered questions such as:
What is the radiation from the Sun in Watts/square meter (W m-2)? It is around 1360 W m-2 .
What energy is on the left axis converted to Watts/square meter?
How does this compare to the warming effect of the Sun? Does this radiation profile affect the cooling of the Earth by water?
The items pointed to in red are not related to the thermodynamics of the atmosphere. For example, the significant dip at 15 micrometers is attributed to CO2. If we applied these profiles to the Earth’s atmosphere, it would indicate that CO2 is the leading cause of the warming of the atmosphere. But that is not true. It is the Sun that provides heat to warm the Earth. It also says nothing about water vapor's essential cooling of the Earth’s atmosphere.
8. Cross-sections of water vapor and CO2
There is no reason to believe that the water vapor and carbon dioxide crosssections are incorrect.
Figure 6 Cross-sections of water vapor and carbon dioxide provided by Howard Hayden.
These cross-sections involve collisions between molecules in the atmosphere. However, these collisions do not appear to affect the heat removal rate from the Earth by condensation of water vapor.
9. The role of carbon dioxide
At the current CO2 level of approximately 420 ppm, CO2's cooling and warming effects are insignificant compared to water vapor. Its heat content (enthalpy) per kilogram is defined by (kg/kg dry air x specific heat x ΔT). Thus, one kilogram of CO2 raised by 1oC has 0.833 kilojoules, i.e., (1 x 0.833 x 1) = 0.833 kJ. CO2 is above its boiling point in the Earth’s atmosphere and has no phase change. In contrast, one kg of water in phase change can emit or absorb 2256 kJ. Thus, the warming or cooling effect of one kg of CO2 is (0.833/2256) = 0.037% of that of one kg of water. This is insignificant.
9. Conclusions
The Earth is kept cool enough for current life forms to exist by the thermodynamic action of water, which sends the excess heat to space. This occurs primarily in the Tropics by convection and thunderstorms, which raise water vapor to altitudes where it can condense and release heat.
Thus, the warming or cooling effect of one kg of CO2 is an insignificant 0.037% of that of one kg of water. This is consistent with current work showing that the warming effect of CO2 is too small to measure and is undetectable.
Non-thermodynamic features such as radiation profiles are interesting but do not affect the thermodynamic nature of the Earth’s atmosphere.
The problem has now been identified. For example, there appears to be no link between the radiation profile in the Tropics at Guam and the enormous amount of heat released in the Tropics. Does anyone have a link?
10. References:
[1] Spencer R W, Climate Confusion, Encounter Books, First Edition 2008.
[2] Water cycle available at: https://www.sciencefacts.net/water-cycle.html
© Lightfoot and Ratzer 2024 7
Water cycle video available at: https://www.sciencefacts.net/watercycle.html
[3] Bureau of Meteorology, The Science of Thunderstorms: How They Form and Why They Matter. Available at: https://bureauofmeteorology.org/blogs/weather-science/the-science-ofthunderstorms-how-they-form-and-why-they-matter
[4] World patterns of thunderstorm frequency. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/thunderstorm4[4] Cumulonimbus cloud. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_cloud#cite_noteExtreme_Weather-11
[5] Cumulonimbus cloud. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_cloud#cite_noteExtreme_Weather-11
[6] Thunderstorms 101 | National Geographic. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUNEFefftt8
[7] NASA Space Place. How do hurricanes form? Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/thunderstorm
[8] Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press, Published October 1, 2024, Updated on October 1, 2024 at 2:37 pm. Available at: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/heleneother-storms-40-trillion-gallons-rain/3730577/#:~:text=More%20than %2040%20trillion%20gallons%20of%20rain%20drenched,of%20amount %20of%20water%20that%20has%20stunned%20experts.