Exact results in modeling planetary atmospheres—III.: The general theory applied to the Earth's semi-gray atmosphere

Abstract: We apply the semi-gray model of our previous paper to the particular case of the Earth''s atmosphere, in order to illustrate quantitatively the inverse problem associated with the direct problem we dealt with before. From given climatological values of the atmosphere''s spherical albedo and transmittance for visible radiation, the single-scattering albedo and the optical thickness in the visible are inferred, while the infrared optical thickness is deduced for given global average surface temperature. Eventually, temperature distributions in terms of the infrared optical depth will be shown for a terrestrial atmosphere assumed to be semi-gray and, locally, in radiative and thermodynamic equilibrium. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]