Philip Mulholland

and 1 more

The objective of this work is to apply the Dynamic-Atmosphere Energy Transport (DAET) climate model to a study of the Earth's semi-opaque troposphere. In this analysis the concept of previous authors has been followed and the Earth's climate is treated as a single integrated structured system of solar energy collection, thermal energy retention and energy distribution across the Earth's surface. Unlike previous authors the hemispheric duality of the Earth's surface is modelled with two separate energy environments of a day lit hemisphere of net energy collection and a dark night surface of net energy loss as fundamental to the design. Using worked examples, it is shown how the Greenhouse Effect results from the summation of two separate physical atmospheric processes, both of which are mathematically equivalent and which together create an energy reservoir within the Earth's troposphere. These processes are the thermal radiant opacity blocking of radiative physics, and the process of adiabatic convection and conserved energy delivery to far distance of mass-motion physics. Both these processes involve the mathematical infinite summation of halves-of-halves of energy flux and are completely saturated at a surface atmospheric pressure of 1 Bar. It is concluded that the two fundamental controls on terrestrial planetary climate for a given solar system orbit are the downwelling high frequency energy reflection filter of planetary Bond Albedo, and the upwelling low frequency energy bypass to space filter of the Atmospheric Window.

Philip Mulholland

and 1 more

Titan, the giant moon of the planet Saturn, is recognized to have meteorological processes involving liquid methane that are analogous to the water generated atmospheric dynamics of planet Earth. We propose here that the climatic features of Titan by contrast are more akin to those of the planet Venus, and that this structural similarity is a direct result of the slow daily rotation rate of these two terrestrial bodies. We present here a simple mathematical climate model based on meteorological principles, and intended to be a replacement for the standard radiation balance equation used in current studies of planetary climate. The Dynamic-Atmosphere Energy-Transport climate model (DAET) is designed to be applied to terrestrial bodies that have sufficient mass and surface gravity to be able to retain a dense atmosphere under a given solar radiation loading. All solar orbiting bodies have both an illuminated hemisphere of net energy collection and a dark hemisphere of net energy loss. The DAET model acknowledges the existence of these dual day and nighttime radiation environments and uses a fully transparent non-condensing atmosphere as the primary mechanism of energy storage and transport in a metrological process that links the two hemispheres. The DAET model has the following distinct advantages as a founding model of climate: It can be applied to all terrestrial planets, including those that are tidally locked. It is an atmospheric mass motion and energy circulation process, and so is fully representative of a Hadley cell; the observed fundamental meteorological process of a terrestrial planet's climate. The diabatic form of the DAET model fully replicates the traditional vacuum planet equation, and as it applies to a totally transparent atmosphere it therefore demonstrates that thermal radiant opacity, due to the presence of polyatomic molecular gases, is not a fundamental requirement for atmospheric energy retention. For the adiabatic form of the DAET model, where the turbulent asymmetric daytime process of forced radiant convection applies, the intercepted solar energy is preferentially retained by the ascending air. The adiabatic DAET climate model shows that the atmospheric greenhouse effect of surface thermal enhancement is a mass motion process, and that it is completely independent of an atmosphere's thermal radiant opacity.

Philip Mulholland

and 1 more

The terrestrial planet Venus is classified by astronomers as an inferior planet because it is located closer to the Sun than the Earth. Venus orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 108.21 Million Km and receives an average annual solar irradiance of 2601.3 W/m 2 , which is 1.911 times that of the Earth. A set of linked forward and inverse climate modelling studies were undertaken to determine whether a process of atmospheric energy retention and recycling could be established by a mechanism of energy partition between the solid illuminated surface and an overlying fully transparent, non-greenhouse gas atmosphere. Further, that this atmospheric process could then be used to account for the observed discrepancy between the average annual solar insolation flux and the surface tropospheric average annual temperature for Venus. Using a geometric climate model with a globular shape that preserves the key fundamental property of an illuminated globe, namely the presence on its surface of the dual environments of both a lit and an unlit hemisphere; we established that the internal energy flux within our climate model is constrained by a process of energy partition at the surface interface between the illuminated ground and the overlying air. The dual environment model we have designed permits the exploration and verification of the fundamental role that the atmospheric processes of thermal conduction and convection have in establishing and maintaining surface thermal enhancement within the troposphere of this terrestrial planet. We believe that the duality of energy partition ratio between the lit and unlit hemispheres applied to the model, fully accounts for the extreme atmospheric "greenhouse effect" of the planet Venus. We show that it is the meteorological process of air mass movement and energy recycling through the mechanism of convection and atmospheric advection, associated with the latitudinal hemisphere encompassing Hadley Cell that accounts for the planet's observed enhanced atmospheric surface warming. Using our model, we explore the form, nature and geological timing of the climatic transition that turned Venus from a paleo water world into a high-temperature, high-pressure carbon dioxide world.
The Dynamic Atmosphere Energy Transport (DAET) climate model, a mathematical model previously applied to a study of Earth’s climate, has been adapted to study the climatic features in the low-pressure, dust-prone atmosphere of the planet Mars. Using satellite data observed for Martian Year 29 (MY29), temperature profiles are presented here that confirm the studies of prior authors of the existence on Mars of a tropical solar-energy driven zone of daytime atmospheric warming, that both diurnally lifts the tropopause and follows the annual latitudinal cycle of the solar zenith. This tropical limb of ascending convection is dynamically linked to polar zones of descending air, the seasonal focus of which is concentrated over each respective hemisphere’s polar winter cap of continuous darkness. An analysis of the MY29 temperature data was performed to generate an annual average surface temperature metric that was then used to both inform the design of and to constrain the computation of the DAET climate model. The modelling analysis suggests that the Martian atmosphere is fully transparent to surface emitted thermal radiant energy. The role of lit hemisphere surface reflectance provides an energy boost to the dust-prone surface boundary layer at grazing-angle latitudes. This backlighting process of quenched solar energy capture ensures that the Martian climate operates as a black-body system. The high emissivity solar illuminated hemispheric surface heats the atmosphere by direct thermal conduction followed by a process of adiabatic convection across the planetary surface. It is the non-lossy process of adiabatic convection that results in the development and maintenance of a flux-enhanced atmospheric energy reservoir which accounts for the 2 Kelvin Atmospheric Thermal Effect in the Martian troposphere.