RADIATIVE FORCING
"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe."
"You take the red pill and
you stay in Wonderland and I'll show you how deep the
rabbit-hole goes."
Vital Climate Graphics
: Introduction to
climate change
Next: The main greenhouse gases
4. Radiative forcing is the change in the balance between radiation
coming into the atmosphere and radiation going out. A positive
radiative forcing tends on average to warm the surface of the Earth,
and negative forcing tends on average to cool the surface. The figure
shows estimates of the globally and annually averaged anthropogenic
radiative forcing (in Wm-2) due to changes in concentrations of
greenhouse gases and aerosols from pre-industrial times to present day
and to natural changes in solar output from 1850 to present. The
height of the rectangular bar indicates a mid-range estimate of the
forcing and the error bars show the uncertainty range. Confidence
level shows the author's confidence that the actual forcing lies
within the given error range.
Note: forcing associated with stratospheric aerosols resulting from
volcanic eruptions is not shown because it is very variable over this
time period.
Next: The main greenhouse gases
Vital Climate Graphics :
Introduction to
climate change
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