How does CO2 affect radiative forcing?

How does CO2 affect radiative forcing?

Carbon dioxide alone would account for a 36-percent increase in radiative forcing since 1990. Although the overall Annual Greenhouse Gas Index continues to rise, the rate of increase has slowed somewhat since the baseline year 1990.

What is the radiative forcing of CO2?

Thus CO2 concentration is a positive forcing on the temperature. For the particular atmospheric conditions chosen for this simulation, the doubled CO2 concentration decreases the amount of IR emission energy by 3.53 W·m–2. Thus, this imaginary CO2 concentration doubling produces a radiative forcing of +3.53 W·m–2.

Is carbon dioxide a positive radiative forcing?

In other cases, radiative forcing has an anthropogenic, or exclusively human, origin. For example, anthropogenic increases in carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are estimated to account for 2.3 watts per square metre of positive radiative forcing.

What is non-CO2 radiative forcing?

Non-CO2. The non-CO2 multiplier is an effort to simplify the accounting of aviation climate forcing from effects other than CO2 accumulation. Page 3. Adapted from IPCC, AR4 (2007) ➢ Aviation represents 3% (range 2 – 8%) of anthropogenic radiative forcing in 2005.

What is an example of negative radiative forcing?

Conversely, negative radiative forcing means that Earth loses more energy to space than it receives from the sun, which produces cooling. A planet in radiative equilibrium with its parent star and the rest of space can be characterized by net-zero radiative forcing and by a planetary equilibrium temperature.

What factors affect radiative forcing?

Radiative forcing. Different factors make average temperature on earth rise or fall. There are positive and negative radiative forcing factors. The main forcing factors are solar input, albedo, greenhouse gases, grading of earth’s axis, particles (aerosols), Milankovich cycluses.

What is radiative forcing for dummies?

Radiative forcing is the change in energy flux in the atmosphere caused by natural or anthropogenic factors of climate change as measured by watts / metre2. Positive radiative forcing means Earth receives more incoming energy from sunlight than it radiates to space. This net gain of energy will cause warming.

What is the largest contributor to climate change?

CO2
Among the various long-lived greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by human activities, CO2 is so far the largest contributor to climate change, and, if anything, its relative role is expected to increase in the future.

Why is radiative forcing bad?

Positive radiative forcing means Earth receives more incoming energy from sunlight than it radiates to space. This net gain of energy will cause warming. Conversely, negative radiative forcing means that Earth loses more energy to space than it receives from the sun, which produces cooling.

Why is radiative forcing important?

Radiative forcing is an important feature of GHGs, i.e., the influence that this gas has on the balance of incoming and outgoing energy in the earth-atmosphere system and is an index of the importance of the factor as a potential climate change mechanism.

What is negative forcing?

These changes are measured by the amount of warming or cooling they can produce, which is called “radiative forcing.” Changes that have a warming effect are called “positive” forcing, while changes that have a cooling effect are called “negative” forcing.

What increases radiative forcing?

Radiative forcing varies with solar insolation, surface albedo, and the atmospheric concentrations of radiatively active gases – commonly known as greenhouse gases – and aerosols.

How big is the radiative forcing of climate 2?

46 Radiative Forcing of Climate 2 estimate the size of this effect, but it is conceivable that this radiative forcing has been of a comparable magnitude, but of opposite sign, to the greenhouse forcing earlier in this century; regional effects could even have been larger.

How many watts per square meter does radiative forcing cause?

Earth receives a nearly constant global & annual average of about 340 Watts per square meter of incoming solar radiation. Radiative forcing is the change in energy flux in the atmosphere caused by natural and, or, anthropogenic factors of climate change as measured by watts / metre 2.

What is the relationship between radiative forcing and carbon dioxide?

The relationship between carbon dioxide and radiative forcing is logarithmic, at concentrations up to around eight times the current value, and thus increased concentrations have a progressively smaller warming effect.

What is radiative forcing of methane and nitrous oxide?

New calculations of the radiative forcing (RF) are presented for the three main well-mixed greenhouse gases, methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide.