Study of Greenhouse Effects Using Zero, One and Two Dimensional Climate Models

摘要

In this study a hierarchy of simple climate models are built and used to assess the impact of changes in the trace gas abundance of Earth's atmosphere on the global and zonal surface temperatures. Two of the four models presented use the Equivalent Radiative Atmosphere approximation to treat the greenhouse effect of water vapor, carbon dioxide and ozone. The other two models have vertically resolved atmospheres and use broad band absorptance and emissivity models in the treatment of radiative exchanges. Two of the models have resolution in the meridional direction and the horizontal energy transport is approximated by a linear, constant coefficient diffusion. A series of sensitivity experiments is conducted with these models to assess the relative importance of various parameters and modeling assumptions. The effect of minor trace gases O3, CH4 and N2O on the globally averaged temperature is also studied.