Weather Banter - View Single Post - Question on carbon dioxide and convective cells

Øyvind Seland · February 26th 07, 11:29 AM posted to sci.geo.meteorology

In article .com, writes:
Would not extra atmospheric carbon dioxide increase the efficiency of
the Hadley, Ferrel, and Polar cells in cooling the earth's surface by
causing the upper troposphere to radiate better?

To be more specific, say the tradewinds blow across the heated ocean.
Evaporation occurs, cooling the ocean. A thunderstorm, front, or
cyclone happens, precipation occurs, the air is heated, and rises. In
the upper troposphere it cools, before descending to complete the
cycle. However it can only cool because it contains carbon dioxide, as
oxygen, nitrogen, if they do not absorb, neither shall they emit
radiation. This presumes that water vapor is insignificant at these
elevated altitudes. If the CO2 is increased by a large fraction, then
the radiation should be similarly enhanced.

Obviously I am out on my own with this analysis. I'm curious why it's
wrong though.

There are no physical law demanding that material has to absorb radiation
in order to emit. It has to emit if it is absorbing.

CO2 transfer energy to N2 and O2 by molecular collisions.

Øyvind Seland