Responses

Posts stimulated by what others have published

Response to R. I. Holmes on Total Solar Irradiance and Temperature at 1 Bar

This work responds to a paper by Robert Holmes (2019) which suggests that the temperatures of terrestrial planets with thick atmospheres depend primarily on total solar irradiance and pressure, based on examination of Venus, Earth, and Titan at an altitude where the pressure is 1 bar. A re-evaluation of the data invalidates the hypothesis in the case of Titan. Calculating a temperature for Earth based on Titan data yields a temperature for Earth that is too low by 25-30 K.
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Response to R. I. Holmes on the Ideal Gas Law, Thermal Enhancement, and the Greenhouse Effect

This work responds to papers by Robert Holmes (2017, 2018), which assert that the Ideal Gas Law (IGL) predicts planetary surface temperatures and shows that increases in atmospheric CO2 can have only minimal impact on temperatures; also asserting that the greenhouse effect does not produce significant warming, and that surface temperatures are enhanced by convection and “auto-compression."
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CO₂ and downwelling longwave radiation

In 2015, Feldman et al. published a study that offered direct observational confirmation of the relationship between local variations in atmospheric CO2 concentration, and the radiative flux of downwelling longwave radiation (DLR) at the surface. In this essay, I'll address a question about interpreting these findings.
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Claes Johnson and the Schwarzschild Equation

Claes Johnson offered an analysis which claimed that the Schwarzchild equation used to do radiative transfer calculations is wrong. However, Johnson made up his own incorrect version of the Schwarzchild equation and made other errors, which render his conclusions nonsensical.
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Thunderstorm World: A Simple Climate Model

Climate blogger Willis Eschenbach has suggested that tropical thunderstorms provide a “thermostatic mechanism” that helps to stabilize the temperature of the Earth within a narrow range. He has also offered a procedure for predicting surface temperatures changes in response to increased radiative forcing...
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Trouble in Noonworld

I have been trying to understand and deconstruct the climate-modeling work of Philip Mulholland and Stephen Wilde (M&W). M&W seem to believe that the model they have developed explains planetary temperatures as a consequence of atmospheric mass movement, without any need to reference the radiative effects of greenhouse gases.
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