Since 1990, carbon dioxide has been the largest contributor to radiative forcing, accounting for about 7 of the radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases. This contribution continues to grow at a steady rate, with carbon dioxide alone accounting for a 36% increase in radiative forcing. The radiative forcing (RF) due to changes in concentrations of relatively well mixed greenhouse gases (WMGHGs) is the largest component of total RF due to human activity over the past.
The report explains that between 1990 and 2021, the warming effect on our climate (known as radiative forcing) by long-lived greenhouse gases has averaged +1.89 W m−2 relative to 1750. Carbon dioxide has the biggest impact on total forcing, while methane and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) play smaller roles as time goes on. The five major greenhouse gases account for about 96 of the direct radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gas increases since 1750.
Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) has the strongest greenhouse effect, 22,900 times de CO2 greenhouse effect. In general, the largest contributor to global warming is carbon dioxide, making it the focus of many climate change initiatives. Since 1990, there has been a 43 increase in total radiative forcing – the warming effect on the climate – by long-lived greenhouse gases.
In conclusion, carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas, but other gases such as methane and nitrous oxide also contribute to global warming. The total concentration of greenhouse gases and other forcing agents, including cooling aerosols, reached 472 parts per million CO2.
📹 Radiative Forcing (Understanding Climate with Professor Monks)
Professor Monks explains radiative forcing — the amount that some factor like greenhouse gas emissions changes the earth’s …
Which greenhouse gas has the largest radiative forcing value?
The warming influence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has significantly increased over the past few decades, with the Global Ambient GHG Index (AGGI) reaching 1. 49 in 2022, a 49-fold increase since 1990, the base year for the Kyoto Protocol. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the largest contributor to radiative forcing, and year-to-year variations in AGGI value generally correspond to CO₂’s increase each year, as CO₂ accounts for about two-thirds of the radiative forcing among all greenhouse gases. The warming influence of greenhouse gases is the primary cause of global warming.
Which greenhouse gas contributes most to the positive radiative forcing?
The ‘F-gases’, including HFCs, PFCs, SF 6 and NF 3, are directly contributing to climate change due to their positive radiative forcing effect. Carbon dioxide is the largest contributor, with methane and nitrous oxide contributing to a smaller proportion. Nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, NMVOCs, and sulfur dioxide are included in the inventory because they can increase tropospheric ozone concentrations, causing radiative forcing and warming the atmosphere.
Sulphur dioxide contributes to aerosol formation, which can either warm or cool the atmosphere. Factsheets for each National Communication sector and greenhouse gas (GHG) can be found within the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
Which is the most powerful greenhouse gas?
Sulfur hexafluoride, a colorless and odorless gas used in electric power systems and chemical agent dispersal, is the most potent greenhouse gas and stays in the atmosphere for 3, 200 years. It contributes a smaller percentage to greenhouse emissions. Tyrichlorofluoromethane, used as a coolant in refrigerators and foam in liquid fire extinguishers, deteriorates the global climate by producing chlorine molecules that deplete the ozone layer and has a high GWP.
Perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), used in the electronics industry for over 50 years, has recently been identified as a potentially harmful greenhouse gas, with a low concentration in the atmosphere and a potential 500-year stay.
Which greenhouse gas absorbs the most radiation?
Water vapor (H2O) is the strongest greenhouse gas, with its concentration largely controlled by the atmosphere’s temperature. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is another important greenhouse gas, and methane (CH4) is 30 times stronger as an absorber of infrared radiation. In 1827, French mathematician Joseph Fourier questioned why Earth’s average temperature is approximately 15°C (59°F). He believed that a balance between incoming and outgoing energy must be maintained to maintain this temperature.
Fourier’s calculations suggested that Earth should be much colder (-18°C or 0°F). To maintain Earth’s average temperature, a process similar to a greenhouse’s heat retention process was needed. The greenhouse’s glass enclosure allows visible light to enter and be absorbed by plants and soil, emitting infrared radiation. The greenhouse absorbs this radiation, keeping it warm even when the outside temperature is lower.
Does methane contribute to radiative forcing?
Methane, a greenhouse gas, contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing and re-radiating thermal radiation. This is due to the radiative forcing of CH4 and its oxidation products, such as tropospheric O3, stratospheric H2O, and CO. Methane’s direct climate forcer nature makes it a significant contributor to global warming. The use of cookies on this site is governed by copyright © 2024 Elsevier B. V., its licensors, and contributors.
Which greenhouse gas has the highest impact?
Greenhouse gases are emitted by various sources, including human activities, energy-related activities, agriculture, land-use change, waste management, and industrial processes. Major greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and synthetic chemicals. Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, accounting for the majority of warming associated with human activities. It occurs naturally as part of the global carbon cycle, but human activities have increased atmospheric loadings through combustion of fossil fuels and other emissions sources.
Natural sinks, such as oceans and plants, help regulate carbon dioxide concentrations, but human activities can disturb or enhance them. Methane comes from various sources, including coal mining, natural gas production, landfill waste decomposition, and digestive processes in livestock and agriculture. Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as combustion of solid waste and fossil fuels. Synthetic chemicals, such as hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and other synthetic gases, are released due to commercial, industrial, or household uses.
Other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere include water vapor and ozone. Each greenhouse gas has a different ability to absorb heat due to differences in the amount and type of energy it absorbs and the “lifetime” it remains in the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has developed metrics called “global warming potentials” to facilitate comparisons between gases with substantially different properties.
Which greenhouse gas has a higher GWP than CO2?
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 273 times higher than CO2 for a 100-year timescale, and it remains in the atmosphere for more than 100 years on average. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) warm the Earth by absorbing energy and slowing its escape to space. They differ in their ability to absorb energy (radiative efficiency) and their lifetime in the atmosphere (lifetime).
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) used the Global Warming Potential (GWP) since 1990 to compare the global warming impacts of different gases. The larger the GWP, the more that a given gas warms the Earth compared to CO2. The time period usually used for GWPs is 100 years. GWPs provide a common unit of measure, allowing analysts to add up emissions estimates of different gases and policymakers to compare emissions reduction opportunities across sectors and gases.
CO2, by definition, has a GWP of 1 regardless of the time period used, as it is the gas being used as the reference. Methane (CH4) has a GWP of 27-30 over 100 years, and while emitted today lasts about a decade on average, it also absorbs much more energy than CO2. The CH4 GWP also accounts for indirect effects, such as CH4 being a precursor to ozone, which is itself a GHG.
High-GWP gases like Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) are sometimes called high-GWP gases because they trap substantially more heat than CO2.
Which gas has the biggest greenhouse effect?
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has developed a set of metrics, designated “global warming potentials,” for the purpose of comparing the warming effect of different gases. To illustrate, it would require thousands of molecules of carbon dioxide to achieve the same warming effect as a single molecule of sulfur hexafluoride. The effects of climate change are manifold and pervasive, affecting both society and ecosystems in a multitude of ways.
What is the highest greenhouse gas?
CO2 accounts for 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with methane primarily from agriculture contributing 16% and nitrous oxide 6%. The rise in carbon dioxide emissions since the industrial revolution has significantly impacted countries. China, the United States, and the European Union are the three largest emitters, with per capita emissions highest in the United States and Russia. The majority of global emissions come from a small number of countries, with the United States and Russia being the largest emitters.
Which greenhouse gas has the highest radiative forcing?
The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index in 2019 was 1. 45, indicating a 45-percent increase in radiative forcing since 1990. Carbon dioxide is the largest contributor to radiative forcing, accounting for 36-percent of the increase since 1990. However, the rate of increase has slowed somewhat since 1990 due to slower methane concentrations and declining chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) concentrations. Human activities have caused an overall warming influence on the Earth’s climate since 1750, with carbon dioxide being the largest contributor.
The Earth’s surface temperature depends on the balance between incoming and outgoing energy from the sun. A shift in the energy balance causes the Earth’s average temperature to become warmer or cooler, leading to changes in the lower atmosphere, land, and oceans. Physical and chemical changes can affect the global energy balance and force climate changes, with some being natural and others influenced by humans.
These changes are measured by the amount of warming or cooling they can produce, known as “radiative forcing”. When positive and negative forces are out of balance, the Earth’s average surface temperature changes.
Which gas has the highest radiative efficiency?
In 2022, methane (CH 4) accounted for 12 of all U. S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, including LULUCF emissions. Methane is emitted from natural gas systems, livestock raising, termites, soil processes, and atmospheric chemical reactions. Its lifetime in the atmosphere is shorter than carbon dioxide (CO 2), but CH 4 is more efficient at trapping radiation than CO2. Globally, 50-65 of total CH 4 emissions come from human activities, including energy, industry, agriculture, land use, and waste management.
Agriculture is the largest source of CH 4 emissions in the United States, as domestic livestock produce CH4 as part of their digestive process. Land use and land-use change activities in the LULUCF sector also contribute to CH 4 emissions. Natural gas and petroleum systems are the second largest source of CH 4 emissions, with CO2 emissions from the production, processing, storage, transmission, distribution, and use of natural gas, crude oil, and coal mining.
Waste from homes and businesses is the third-largest source of CH 4 emissions in the United States, generated in landfills as waste decomposes and in wastewater treatment. Methane is also generated from domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, composting, and anaerobic digestion. Overall, human activities contribute significantly to the global greenhouse gas emissions.
📹 How Do Greenhouse Gases Actually Work?
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“The laws of thermodynamics is the only physical theory of universal content, which I am convinced, that within the framework of applicability of its basic concepts will never be overthrown.” –Albert Einstein The 2nd law of thermodynamics mandate that a colder object (the atmosphere) cannot warm a hotter object (the Earth’s surface.) The hypothesis of the greenhouse effect breaks this law, and must be refuted. The 1st law of thermodynamics is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. The surface cannot be heated by it’s own energy. The hypothesis of the greenhouse effect breaks this law also. The hypothesis of the greenhouse effect breaks both the 1st and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Conclusion: THERE IS NO GREENHOUSE EFFECT!
According to the IPCC the the Earth without an an atmosphere would be -18 degrees. They say the atmosphere adds 33 degrees. The calculations they use average out the solar radiation over the entire Earths surface. This works as long as you assume there is no nighttime on Earth. If you calculate in a more accurate way, accounting for the angle of incidence and rotation, the amount of temperature added is 0.1 degrees. Also you have not mentioned the effect of saturation of energy absorption by CO2 molecules.
To the people in the comments who like to feel that the recent warming is not because of anthropogenic CO2 and that it’s not going to continue to get warmer until CO2 emissions are curbed… you’ll need to come up with a hypothesis that explains why: – warming is happening faster at high latitudes, – nights are warming faster than days, – winters are warming faster than summers, – ocean pH is decreasing, – the ratio of atmospheric 13C/12C has changed the way it has, Further reading: – Hausfather et al. 2020. Evaluating the performance of past climate model projections. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, p.e2019GL085378. – Lacis et al. 2010. Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature. Science, 330, 356-359. – Osman et al. 2021. Globally resolved surface temperatures since the Last Glacial Maximum. Nature, 599, 239-244.
Your assertion about elimination of forests and other plants lightening albedo makes sense. But your further generalization sounds dubious. We also add dark streets and rooftops, and dammed rivers making lakes. Even if these net out as smaller effects, it would be more comfortable to here numbers around that than hearing them ignored. Thanks.
It’s looking pretty much like this: Portion w/m**2 100% 3.71 Double the CO2 +110% 4.08 Water vapour increase and lapse rate change feedbacks +25% 0.93 Arctic Ocean Spring & Summer sea ice reduction feedback +25% 0.93 Arctic region land Spring & Summer snow reduction feedback +70% 2.60 Cloud changes, mostly reduction of the tropical ocean cloud deck feedback 330% 12.25 Total So global warming at 1 degree per 3.2 w/m**2 is 12.25 / 3.2 = 3.8 degrees over 2,000 years (the ocean heating time) which would be 2.3 degrees over 100 years then 1.0 degrees more over another 300 years, then the remaining 0.5 degrees more over another 1,600 years. There are 25 separate paleo climate analyses over thousands and millions of years that did find 3.6 +/- 0.6 degrees as the doubled CO2 warming that actually happened before. It’s called PALEOSENS project.
Re. “Positive Feedback” The evaporation and convection of water from the Earth surface take out heat transporting it higher in the atmosphere where the temp is lower. Your hypothesis that this water vapor cause “back-radiation” of the same heat back to the earth, and warm the Earth surface even more (breaking both the 1st and the 2nd law of thermodynamics in the process.) The so-called “positive feedback.” Fact is that only a tiny fraction of this heat taken out of the Earth’s surface (both convection and radiation) will be radiated back in the form of long wave infrared radiation. Even if this colder radiation was absorbed (which it is not), more heat is going out than coming back and you have a cooling event in any case. Let’s say, in a hypothetical dream world, 100% is radiated back and nothing in other directions, then you get back the same amount you lost in the out-radiation. Q minus Q is ZERO, even with 100% back radiation! Your theory is beyond any reality!🤡🤡🤡 And you hypothesis is totally flawed and easily refuted.
The CO2 -> Temp -> H2O illustration is misleading. It should be Temp -> H2O + CO2 in some cases. There’s no consistent historical record showing that CO2 always leads increas in T and more evidence that it is often the other way ’round. Furthermore, the forcing effect can be positive or negative based on the temperature, so it would be mostly forcing cooling over Antarctica or wherever T=190K, for example.
I think this notion of ‘radiative forcing’ needs careful examination. The IPCC published an energy balance model that is inconsistent. In the IPCC model, there are unbalanced energy inputs. There is no acknowledgement that energy flows laterally in the atmosphere – from the lower latitudes to the polar regions. The photochemistry of ozone is not even mentioned in your presentation (the IPCC ignores the stratosphere and publishes an emissivity model that implies it doesn’t even exist) – this gas is much more significant in controlling Earth’s emissivity than CO2. You also neglect to point out that water vapour turns to rain. Water dynamics in the atmosphere is massively important and not completely understood. It is worth noting that a hurricane is a heat pump that in a day pumps more energy into the stratosphere than the entire US energy generation for a year! You ask us to believe that CO2 is the demon gas?!? Worldwide emissions of this gas are responsible for some completely unphysical amplification of energy in the atmosphere?!? This IPCC asks us to ignore energy conservation and the second law of thermodynamics?!? Climate is changing … it has been doing so for about 4.8 billion years. The non-linear dynamics of climate are not all at instantaneous (radiative) timescales … unlike radiative models, convective and conductive cycles range from years to decades (and possibly 100’s of years). ENSO the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and tropical cyclones are examples. The dogma is that solar radiation is not a driver – but sunspot activity alters the UV input intensity by upwards of a factor of 10!
The albedo/atmosphere make the Earth cooler not warmer. Yes or no? If no pls ‘splain. The GHGs must absorb “extra” energy upwelling from the surface radiating as a black body. (aka Radiative Forcing) The kinetic energy heat transfer processes in the contiguous atmospheric molecules make surface BB impossible as also demonstrated by experiment. Agree or disagree? If disagree pls ‘splain. If both or either of these points is correct the greenhouse effect is not. No greenhouse effect, no GHG warming, no man/CO2 driven global warming or climate change. RF is akin to caloric, phlogiston and luminiferous ether. A made up, hocus pocus, handwavium explanation for the GHE. Neither are real. Version 1.0 120721
Wow! You expect intelligent people to believe this inadequate presentation? What happened to water vapour, the effect of ocean currents etc. Solar irradiation is very complex and it changes for many reasons yet you trivialise its importance. How about describing the radiative forcing mechanism? The real heat transfer process relies on the quantum mechanical process of IR absorption and thermalisation. Heat from the earths surface is principally conveyed by convection to the top of the troposphere. You also make no mention of greenhouse gas saturation or the fact that many of the absorption bands of greenhouse gases overlap. The situation is way more complex than your rather poor model. No wonder the public at large is confused and has so little understanding of what is really going on with our climate.