quote:
Suricat, I think you'll enjoy this essayif you haven't already read it.
A remarkably clear description of a mechanism that will act as a thermostat on the warming properties of CO2 or other warming sources.
I haven't read this before, but I like it even if it is a bit "flowery" (and inaccurate) in places. However, please realise that this only applies to the equatorial region of the Hadley Cells.
You'll find that Cumulonimbus Cloud (Thunderheads) don't draw WV (feed) directly from the surface at other latitudes on the Earth, only where the surface pressure is lowered to a sufficient level ,with compliant SSTs, for this to occur (e.g. a hurricane). However, at the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) Earth's radial centrifuge velocity of about 8cm/sec^2 is enough to produce this "surface to strat 'tube'" phenomenon with a singular "Thunderhead".
This is a part of the thermostat that controls Earth's overall climate, but I don't think that Willis made a good enough point for a global thermostat, or its altered hysteresis with latitude increase. Only ITCZ! However, I know that you hate models as much as I do and look for observations. This is a good observation for the ITCZ and underlines some of our prior discussions on the old C4 site. Nice one SoM!
Best regards, suricat.