CLIMATE CHANGE NEEDS SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT
Those that claim that carbon dioxide and other minor greenhouse gases are controlling the earth’s temperature ignore the dominate effect of water vapor, also a greenhouse gas. Water vapor dominates because its weight concentration is several times greater than the total of other gases. Carbon dioxide at 400 ppm is the greatest of the other gases. This volume percent converts to 49 pounds per million cubic ft at standard conditions and compares to water vapor at 800 pounds. Unlike other gases, it is not a fixed number because water vapor varies according to atmospheric temperature and pressure. Increasing the temperature to 86oF, the water vapor increases to 1900 pounds. Heat balances are based on weight relationships. I believe that water vapor accounts for more than 99% of the global greenhouse effect. Clouds are a visual result of the greenhouse effect that results in cooler days and warmer nights.
Water vapor enters the atmosphere by way of the water cycle. Water evaporates into air and is carried to higher elevations where it condenses as rain and falls back to earth. The evaporation portion of the cycle produces a cooling effect that becomes a part of the daily daylight radiant heating and nightly emissions that control the earth’s high and low temperatures. The dynamics of the cycle is dependent on isolated areas of the earth’s surface. For example, the Tropic Zone, receives the greatest intensity of radiant energy and with the water cycle, produces an annual rainfall of 134 inches of rain water. The Topical Zone covers 40% of the earth’s 197 million square miles of surface area. This rainfall converts to 1.528x1018 pounds of water and with the energy for evaporation of 1096 BTU per pound gives an annual cooling of 1.67x1021 BTU’s. The sun’s radiant intensity depends on the earth’s latitude. Moving to the Temperate Zones, the rainfall drops to an average of 45 inches. With its area of 52 % of the earth’s surface, the weight of rainfall becomes 667x1015 pounds and the cooling to 731.7x1018 BTU’s. The smaller Polar Zones take up 8% of the earth’s surface and record 10 inches per year. This mainly occurs in the Northern Polar Zone because Antarctica has no rain, being below freezing. This rainfall level produces 22.7x1015 pounds of water and 24.9x1018 BTU’s of cooling.
Water plays two important roles in controlling the earth’s temperature. One as a greenhouse gas and the second as supplemental cooling. Given the dynamic properties of water, one could propose that whether global heating or global cooling is taking place, the water cycle would adjust to maintain a balanced temperature.
The shallow troposphere limits the area of weather influences. Science should study isolated areas where known weather changes have been quantified. When dealing with the earth temperature, it should be the surface temperature. It is the surface physical details and thermal properties that form the basis for calculating heat transfer and balances. The surface wind speed and direction set the water cycle.
Now is the time to replace the empirical evidence with scientific principles that explain the climate changes being experienced.
