Earth System - 1

(ECS201)
Lecture 6

Dr Neena Joseph Mani

Earth & Climate Science
Reason: The assump.on that the atmosphere absorbs all the
IR is not right. Some of the surface radia.on leaks through the
atmosphere directly.
 What happens when radia.on passes
through the atmosphere?
Transmission

Refrac.on

Sca0ering

Reec.on

Absorp.on and Emission

 Solar Radia.on Spectra

At the top of the

atmosphere, ~480 km
above Earths surface
Power

Before it passes
through the
atmosphere!
 Solar Radia.on Spectra
At the Earths surface,
at sea level.

Solar Radia.on has

passed through the
Power

atmospheric column.

Gaps are observed
in the spectral power at
several frequencies,
corresponding to
molecular absorp.on by
atmospheric cons.tuents.
For a molecule to absorb IR, the vibra.ons or rota.ons within a molecule must
cause a net change in the dipole moment of the molecule.

The electromagne.c radia.on interacts with uctua.ons in the dipole
moment of the molecule. Homo-nuclear diatomic molecules like N2 and O2 do
not absorb IR radia.on because they do not have a permanent dipole
moment. As they vibrate or rotate, the dipole moment remains zero.
H2O is a nonlinear triatomic molecule
which possess a permanent dipole Linear triatomic (CO2, N2O)

moment (polar molecule).

Symmetric stretch Bending Asymmetric stretch
!1 !2 !3

Nonlinear Triatomic (H2O, O3)
Three dominant vibra.on
modes cause absorp.on in
near IR.
Symmetric stretch Bending Asymmetric stretch
!1 !2 !3

More important is the

IR absorp.on band at
12 microns and longer
wavelength due to
rota.onal modes of the
H2O molecule.
 Diatomic (N2, O2, CO)
CO2 is a linear molecule which does not have
a permanent dipole moment.

Linear triatomic (CO2, N2O)

Symmetric stretch Bending Asymmetric stretch

!1 !2 !3

Nonlinear Triatomic (H2O, O3)

The triatomic C02 molecule can vibrate
in three ways. Of which only the asymmetric
stretching and bending modes produce a change
in dipole moment.
Symmetric stretch Bending Asymmetric stretch
!1 !2 !3
The bending mode causes IR absorp.on at a
wavelength of 15 microns in the region of
maximum emission of Earths radia.on, hence
CO2 becomes a strong green house gas.
The 15 micrometer C02 band overlaps with the H20 rota.on band and, hence, is
hard to dis.nguish. Because it occurs fairly near the peak of Earth's outgoing
radia.on, this absorp.on band is par.cularly important to climate.
The long wave infrared radiation, corresponding to terrestrial and atmospheric emissions, are
absorbed by H2 O, CH4 , CO2 and O3 which are called the greenhouse gases.
UV absorption by O2,
O3, H2O and CO2

The atmosphere is
transparent to visible
wavelengths, but they
are subject to scattering
by N2, O2, aerosols and
clouds.

Absorption of Terrestrial radiation

The longwave IR radiations,

corresponding to terrestrial and
atmospheric emissions, are
absorbed by water vapor H2 O,
CH4 , CO2 and O3 which are
called the greenhouse gases.
 Solar and Terrestrial Radia.on Spectra