Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-of-atmospheres-and-oceans-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/2/d/solution

At fixed and , the outgoing radiant flux scales as . Increasing the optical depth shifts the effective emitting region to lower pressure and lower temperature. A surface temperature cannot be inferred from emission alone: specify the absorbed stellar radiant flux and impose radiative equilibrium, . If the no-atmosphere blackbody has , then
The vertical-ray approximation omits from this prefactor. For fixed and sufficiently large optical depth, the surface is warmer than : this is the thermal greenhouse effect within the prescribed temperature profile. It does not by itself establish a self-consistent vertical heating or convection balance.

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