Do Global Energy budgets make sense. ???

[Richard111]

(04-19-2010 12:54 AM)Derek Wrote:  

(04-18-2010 10:48 PM)Richard111 Wrote:  That implies a large energy change from top to bottom of the cloud.
I understand a goodly portion of the shortwave radiation is reflected directly back out to space (albedo), but
what happens to the rest? It is not reaching the surface.

Err, absorbed in top of clouds (mostly by water - liquid and ice) and re radiated at a lower temperature possibly.
As suggested in the Brego post thread,
http://www.globalwarmingskeptics.info/fo...d-655.html
then possibly being confused with IR emitted supposedly by CO2 in IR flows / measurements.

Just so. Those graphs are an eye opener. I have to rely on personal experience. I spent three years in Singapore. At that time I had no idea there were 1,366 W/m^2 of energy being fed into the tops of the clouds above me in the middle of the day during the rainy season. The rain was usually very welcome as it cooled things down a bit. It certainly was not hot rain, but not uncomfortably cold, I suppose almost skin temperature as you could walk around in that rain without feeling chilled.

When the skies were clear, which was not often, it got damn hot and coupled with the high humidity, often above 95%, it could be quite uncomfortable.

So all in all, a lot of that energy did not make it through the cloud to the surface. The mechanics of what is happening inside those big heavy clouds must be awesome. I have experienced flying through some of those clouds and the updraughts/downdraughts are indeed scary.

There must be a lot of work being done in those rapid vertical movements of air which are not usually visible from the ground unless you encounter a tornado. Now that is something I have never seen for real yet.

I just remembered, there is a visible effect of air movement in cloud, it is seen on the underside of cloud and is named mamata.