Nev,
mm. quite a bit to respond too. So sorry mate this is a little long winded.
Understand what it is you are posting. This text doesn’t prove that the troposphere is radiatively controlled—it actually confirms the opposite and in line exactly with Manabe and Kiehl stated.
Do you actually understand what convection is. Mate I think not. Our troposphere is a convective atmosphere your continued references shoot you in the foot.
It explicitly states: "The vertical variation inthe troposphere is controlled by convection carrying heat up from the lowersurface to the upward direction."
That is a direct admission that convection, not radiation, determines the temperature structure of the troposphere.
Yes, greenhouse gases will absorb the Earth’s thermal radiation in the selective absorption range they can absorb.
The total amount of energy to be absorbed is dictated by Planck’s Law. However, their ability to radiatively de-excite (and back radiate) isextremely limited in the dense lower atmosphere. The only time GHGs canemit in any meaningful way is when they reach the tropopause, where air density is much lower.
That excerpt you provide in no way at all claims radiation dominates the troposphere—in fact, the excerpt clearly states the opposite. Radiative emission within the dense troposphere is minuscule compared toconvective energy transport.
The lapse rate equation:
Γ=g/Cp tells us that pressure,density, and gravity—not radiation—set the temperature gradient.
So, are you conceding that the troposphere is convectively controlled, as the text states, or are you still claiming radiation governs it, despite what the paper actually says?
I’m really trying to educate you here.
When I say “absorption only”, I mean that due to atmospheric density and the sheer abundance of molecular collisions (also known as quenching), gases are largely unable to radiatively de-excite—meaning they do not easily emit photons.
RDE (Radiative De-Excitation) does not typically occur in the dense lower atmosphere because collisional de-excitation dominates, preventing energy from being lost through radiation. It’s simply a matter of molecularphysics—at the average density and molecular velocity in the troposphere, radiative emission is suppressed.
