Re: Climategate 2.0
My 2c:
Well if we're talking about radiation that's being emitted by the earth surface , absorbed in the atmosphere and reradiated back downwards then yeah, it is the Earth's blackbody portion of the spectrum we're dealing with.
I can't pretend to anything approaching expertise, but from what I have read it seems the whole radiation absorption thing gets quite complex. For example, take a look at how the absorption changes between the surface and at 11km up. H2O gets less important. And, since we're talking about the total energy retained by the earth system, the 11km figures are much more important.
But there's more. There are fine-scale gaps and peaks in the absorption spectra that are too small to show on those graphs, but probably large enough to have an influence. Things also change with pressure.
And yeah, H2O accounts for the bulk of the greenhouse effect. But so what? Other GHGs still have an effect. Plus the quantity if water vapour in the atmosphere is determined by temperature, so it has to be treated as part of the internal dynamics of the system.
As always, usual disclaimers about being lay interested person and double checking with scientifically reliable sources, etc.
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