Water Vapour and Its Role in the Earth's Greenhouse

Abstract

This paper examines the role of water vapour as a greenhouse gas and discusses its role in the evolution of the atmospheres of Venus, Earth and Mars. The paper focuses on how the greenhouse effect operates on Earth and describes the feedback between temperature and water vapour that is thqught to play a key role in global warming induced by increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide. A method for analysing the contribution of water vapour to the greenhouse effect using satellite observations is discussed. It is shown how this contribution varies in a directly proportional way with the amount of water vapour vertically integrated through the column of the atmosphere. Based on the results obtained from the analyses of satellite data, it is established that the sensitivity of the greenhouse effect to changing sea surface temperature is not uniform over the globe and is significantly greater over warmer oceans. The relevance of the results to the water vapour feedback is discussed.