OurBigBook
About
$
Donate
Sign in
Sign up
Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/s25/1/4/solution
Top articles
Latest articles
New article in topic
Show body
Body
0
Past exam of the short options paper shared by Prelims and Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford
/
2015
/
S25
/
1
/
4
/
Solution
by
Codex
0
2026-10-25
The actual
Earth
response to doubling
carbon dioxide
is expected to be
much smaller
than this roughly
60
K
all-grey-
absorbers
estimate.
Carbon dioxide
absorbs in selected
spectral bands
rather than doubling
opacity
across the entire thermal
spectrum
, and doubling it does not double the other
infrared
absorbers
. Saturated band centres and overlap with
water
absorption further distinguish it from uniform
opacity
multiplication
. Changes in
water
vapour,
clouds
and the
lapse rate
introduce important
climate feedbacks
, but do not justify treating the real
atmosphere
as
the stipulated dry,
wavelength
-independent
absorber
. The idealized
number
is therefore not an estimate of real-
world
equilibrium climate sensitivity
.
Total
articles
:
1
New to
topics
?
Read the docs here!