Richard Allan

Surveys in Geophysics

Published date October 28, 2011

The Role of Water Vapour in Earth’s Energy Flows

  • Summarizes the role of water vapour in Earth’s energy flows with particular emphasis on:
    • the powerful thermodynamic constraint of the Clausius Clapeyron equation
    • dynamical controls on humidity above the boundary layer (or freetroposphere)
    • uncertainty in continuum absorption in the relatively transparent ‘‘window’’ regions of the radiative spectrum and
    • implications for changes in the atmospheric hydrological cycle