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Radiative Forcing of Climate Change Expanding the Concept and Addressing Uncertainties (2005) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix C: Glossary and Acronyms
Pages 198-208

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From page 198...
... Albedos commonly tend to be broadband ratios, usually referring either to the entire spectrum of solar radiation or to just 198
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From page 199...
... ARM Atmospheric Radiation Measurement ASF Model Atmospheric Stabilization Framework Model A-Train A planned satellite formation consisting of two of the major EOS missions, three Earth System Science Pathfinder missions, and a French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) mission flying along the same orbit track and separated by only a few minutes.
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From page 200...
... Climate sensitivity has played a central role in interpretation of model outputs, in evaluation of future climate changes expected from various scenarios, and it is closely linked to attribution of currently observed climate changes. An ongoing challenge to models and to climate projections has been to better define this key parameter and to understand the differences in computed values between various models.
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From page 201...
... ENSO El Niño/Southern Oscillation EOS Earth Observing System ERBE Earth Radiation Budget Experiment ERBS Earth Radiation Budget Satellite Evapotranspiration The combined processes, including physical evaporation and transpiration, through which water is transferred to the atmosphere from open water and ice surfaces, bare soil, and vegetation that make up the Earth's surface. Over bare soils or the ocean, only physical evaporation occurs.
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From page 202...
... An index describing the radiative characteristics of well-mixed greenhouse gases that represents the combined effect of the differing times these gases remain in the atmosphere and their relative effectiveness in absorbing outgoing infrared radiation. This index approximates the time-integrated warming effect of a unit mass of a given greenhouse gas in today's atmosphere, relative to that of carbon dioxide.
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From page 203...
... IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IR Infrared ISCCP International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project LAI Leaf area index Latent heat The specific enthalpy difference between two phases of a substance at the same temperature. The latent heat of vaporization is the water vapor-specific enthalpy minus the liquid water-specific enthalpy.
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From page 204...
... NPOESS National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System NRC National Research Council NWP Numerical Weather Prediction OCO Orbiting Carbon Observatory OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Optical depth The optical thickness measured vertically above some given altitude. Optical depth is dimensionless and may be used to specify many different radiative characteristics of the atmosphere.
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From page 205...
... PSC Polar stratospheric cloud QBO Quasi-Biennial Oscillation Radiative forcing See direct radiative forcing; indirect radiative forcing RCCP Regional climate change potential RCE Radiative-convective equilibrium Sensible heat The outcome of heating a surface without evaporating water from it. Sensible heat per unit mass can be identified roughly with the specific enthalpy of unsaturated air, that is, approximately cpdT, where cpd is the specific heat of dry air at constant pressure and T is temperature.
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From page 206...
... (AMS) TAR IPCC Third Assessment Report TARFOX Tropospheric Aerosol Radiative Forcing Observational Experiment Teleconnection (1)
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From page 207...
... For a dynamic forcing that creates a cloud with a given vertical extent and liquid water content, an increase in aerosol concentration going into the cloud can result in the formation of a larger number of smaller droplets compared to an unperturbed cloud. The end result is an increase in cloud albedo.
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Key Terms

  • latent heat
  • radiative forcing
  • infrared radiation
  • climate forcing
  • solar radiation

  • specific enthalpy
  • sensible heat
  • climate sensitivity
  • flux density
  • dispersed phase

  • climate model
  • liquid water
  • future climate
  • unit mass
  • solar irradiance

  • heat flux
  • physical evaporation
  • indirect radiative
  • climate feedback
  • climate response

  • global atmospheric
  • sensitivity parameter
  • radiation budget
  • distinguish radiation
  • greenhouse gas

  • aerosol concentration
  • longwave radiation
  • climate changes
  • electromagnetic spectrum
  • consumption levels


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