Investigating the Influence of Carbon Dioxide and the Stratosphere on the Long-Term Tropospheric Temperature Monitoring from HIRS

Contrary to a midtropospheric warming trend detected from Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) measurements, High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS) temperature (15 μm) channels, sensitive to the thermal emission from the troposphere, produce distinct cooling trends for the period 1980–99. This apparent discrepancy in the tropospheric temperature trend is investigated through radiative transfer simulations using Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory climate model output and the profiles of the standard model atmospheres. Radiative simulations with time-invariant carbon dioxide concentration throughout the entire analysis period produce trends that are qualitatively similar to that obtained from the MSU observations, implying that the observed cooling trends of the HIRS temperature channels are attributable to increased carbon dioxide concentration over the 20-yr period. Additional simulations with the observed time-varying concentration of carbon dioxide confirm this basic result. Whereas temp...