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Andre
Jul17-08, 03:36 PM
In another htread I argued that the diurnal cycle of atmpospheric heating by conduction )day and night), convection only at day would lead to another nett atmospheric warming apart from radiation.

Perhaps check this out:

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a788582859~db=all~tab=content~order=page

abstract

The writers investigated the effect of CO2 emission on the temperature of atmosphere. Computations based on the adiabatic theory of greenhouse effect show that increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere results in cooling rather than warming of the Earth's atmosphere.

Excerpts from the article

.....According to our estimates, convection accounts for 67%, water vapor condensation in troposphere accounts for 25%, and radiation accounts for about 8% of the total heat transfer from the Earth's surface to troposphere. Thus, convection is the dominant process of heat transfer in troposphere, and all the theories of Earth's atmospheric heating (or cooling) first of all must consider this process of heat (energy)-mass redistribution in atmosphere (Sorokhtin, 2001a, 2001b; Khilyuk and Chilingar, 2003, 2004).

When the temperature of a given mass of air increases, it expands, becomes lighter, and rises. In turn, the denser cooler air of upper layers of troposphere descends and replaces the warmer air of lower layers. This physical system (multiple cells of air convection) acts in the Earth's troposphere like a continuous surface cooler. The cooling effect by air convection can surpass considerably the warming effect of radiation.



Although probably in essence right, I think it's a bid different in detail and I'd like to continue with some thoughts on this in a few days.