Do Global Energy budgets make sense. ???

[Richard111]

"There are two questions the radiant absorption by CO2 a) how much does it absorb and b) what amount is transferred to other molecules to heat the surrounds."

Yes, the 64 thousand dollar questions I've asked so many times and received no answer. Still no answer. Phooey to HITRAN, MODTRAN and all the other TRANS. Photons do not care about their source, they just travel at the speed of light until they hit something or not.

High level CO2 will radiate more to space than back to the surface which radiation will most likely be absorbed by lower level CO2 and be reradiated isotropically from a temperature range MUCH LOWER than the surface temperature, each level reducing radiation by something less than half each time in which ever direction you look. That "something less than half" would be the answer to b) above.

When you talk about clouds you must include the whole long wave radiation band in the absorption/emissivity range, not just the piddling 2.7, 3.4 and 15 micron bands of CO2 which amounts to just 8% of the long wave radiation energy bands. In the presence of clouds any effects directly due to CO2 would be impossible to measure, as your friend above points out.