Biology
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmgc42c..02g&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #GC42C-02
Biology
[0321] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Cloud/Radiation Interaction, [1622] Global Change / Earth System Modeling, [3344] Atmospheric Processes / Paleoclimatology, [5225] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology / Early Environment Of Earth
Scientific paper
The canonical problem in Early Earth climatology is the Faint Young Sun Paradox (FYSP): despite receiving much less energy from the Sun than today, the Earth was at least as warm during the Archean Eon as it is today. Clearly, Early Earth had stronger greenhouse effect or lower albedo, yet despite four decades of study, there is no consensus on the solution. The FYSP requires consideration of very different climate regimes to the present day, so provides a great learning tool for diverse and undiscovered climates in Earth's past and future. I will discuss old and new ideas of enhanced greenhouse gas solutions, present a recent proposal that pressure broadening by a thicker nitrogen atmosphere contributed to the solution [1], and a new analysis of what role clouds could have in resolving the FYSP [2]. Various strong greenhouse gas enhancements have been suggested, but all are subject to some problems. A nitrogen inventory greater than the present level was likely in the Archean atmosphere. This would have given a temperature increase of 3 to 8°C by pressure broadening the absorption lines of greenhouse gases. Cloud changes are evaluated relative to the required radiative forcing of +50 Wm-2 to resolve the FYSP. Plausible changes to low clouds (reducing albedo) or high cloud (strengthening the greenhouse effect) could both contribute at most +15Wm-2, so neither fewer low clouds nor more high clouds can provide enough forcing to resolve the FYSP. Decreased surface albedo can contribute no more than +5 Wm-2 forcing. [1] Goldblatt, C. et al., 2009, Nitrogen-enhanced greenhouse warming on early Earth, Nature Geosci., 2, 891 - 896. doi:10.1038/ngeo692 [2] Goldblatt, C. and Zahnle, K. J., 2010, Clouds and the Faint Young Sun Paradox, Clim. Past Discuss., 6, 1337-1350. doi:10.5194/cpd-6-1337-2010
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