Independent Researcher, Exeter NSW 2579, Australia.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2022, 14(02), 564–572
Article DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2022.14.2.0478
Received on 22 April 2022; revised on 23 May 2022; accepted on 26 May 2022
The patterns of behaviour of clouds, both for cloud area and cloud optical thickness, are studied over the period of available data, 1983 to 2017. There was a decrease in cloud cover over the study period, while global surface temperatures increased. The patterns of clouds and temperature indicate that the cloud cover decrease could not have been caused by the increased surface temperature. The clear implication is that the decrease in global cloud area must have been caused by some other unspecified factor, and was not caused directly or indirectly by CO2. Evaluation of the changes in clouds and CO2 over the study period indicate that this unspecified factor had as much positive impact as the increase in CO2, with respect to the amount of radiation reaching the surface (radiative forcing), and possibly a much larger positive impact. The climate models, which have zero or negative cloud impact on radiative forcing independently from CO2, need to take this into account in order to avoid over-estimating the influence of CO2.
Climate; Clouds; Solar Radiation; Radiative Forcing; Feedback; Global Surface Temperature; Climate Models
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Michael O Jonas. Clouds independently appear to have as much or greater effect than man-made CO2 on radiative forcing. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2022, 14(2), 564-572. Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2022.14.2.0478