Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/iii/paper-315/4/c/solution

Use the single-layer greenhouse model with a blackbody surface and one isothermal atmospheric layer. The layer is transparent to incoming stellar radiation, absorbs a fraction of the surface's thermal radiation, and has the same thermal emissivity by Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation. Here , and is the planetary equilibrium temperature defined by the absorbed global stellar flux . Neglect convection, latent heat transport and intrinsic heat.
The layer absorbs and emits upward and downward. For , its energy balance gives
The surface receives the absorbed stellar flux plus downward atmospheric emission, so
Eliminating yields
The outgoing top-of-atmosphere flux is , confirming overall energy conservation. At , and the decoupled layer's temperature is not determined; at , . This warming is the restriction of thermal escape by the absorbing and emitting layer.

New to topics? Read the docs here!