The absorption of solar radiation by water vapour and carbon dioxide in a cloudless atmosphere

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Abstract
A method of computation of the direct absorption of solar radiation by the near infra‐red bands of water vapour and carbon dioxide in a cloudless, non‐scattering atmosphere using recent laboratory data compiled by Howard, Burch and Williams (1955) is described.Three applications of this computation are discussed:(i) Heating rates in an atmosphere whose water‐vapour distribution is given by radiosonde or aircraft observations.(ii) Instantaneous heating rates as a function of solar zenith angle, altitude and precipitable water vapour.(iii) A climatological study of heating rates in a cloudless atmosphere integrated over a 24‐hr period as a function of latitude, season, altitude and precipitable water vapour. The relative contributions to heating by water vapour and carbon dioxide are assessed between 10 and 1,000 mb.The mixing ratio of carbon dioxide was assumed constant throughout the atmosphere, while idealized vertical distributions of water vapour mixing ratio were used in (ii) and (iii).

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