Open AccessClouds not important for control of short‐term surface temperatures
Author(s) -
Schultz Colin
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2012eo010022
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , term (time) , climate change , environmental science , earth system science , atmospheric sciences , climatology , meteorology , political science , geography , physics , geology , astronomy , oceanography
In two recent papers, R. W. Spencer and W. D. Braswell ( Remote Sens., 3 (8), 1603– 1613, doi:10.3390/rs3081603, 2011) (SB) and R. S. Lindzen and Y.‐S. Choi ( Asia Pac. J. Atmos. Sci., 47 (4), 377–390, doi:10.1007/s13143‐011‐0023‐x, 2011) (LC) argue that clouds act as a primary initiator of surface temperature changes in Earth's climate system. The two sets of authors reached this conclusion by developing a method that tries to determine the Earth's surface temperature by calculating how much energy is stored in the ocean's upper layers, how much of this heat is transferred to the rest of the climate system, how clouds affect the rate at which energy escapes Earth's atmosphere, and how the surface's energy flux changes with temperature. Both studies spurred substantial debate within the media and the public, with the research by SB causing the editor of the journal in which it was published to resign, claiming it should not have been accepted by the journal. Assessing the two studies, Dessler found what he suggests are a number of methodological errors.