Surveys in Geophysics publishes refereed overview articles on physical, chemical and biological processes occurring within the Earth, on its surface, in its atmosphere and in the near-Earth space environment, including relations with other bodies in the solar system. Observations, their interpretation, theory and modeling are presented in relation to relevant disciplines in the Geosciences and related areas. Published articles present balanced and well constructed reviews of recent advances in areas of topical interest, written for the broad community of earth scientists in academia, government and industry. The subjects covered in Surveys in Geophysics comprise all aspects of the solid Earth, geodesy, oceans and atmosphere, meteorology and climate, hydrology, environmental issues, solar-terrestrial and space physics, plus the physics of the Moon and the terrestrial-type planets.
The Editor-in-Chief of Surveys in Geophysics is Michael J. Rycroft, CAESAR Consultancy, Cambridge, UK. The journal’s objectives are also to endorse and align with the UN sustainable development goals SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land).
n most near‐infrared atmospheric windows, absorption of solar radiation is dominated by the water vapor self‐continuum, and yet there is a paucity of measurements in these windows. We report new laboratory measurements of the self‐continuum absorption at temperatures between 293 and 472 K and pressures from 0.015 to 5 atm in four near‐infrared windows between 1 and 4 μm (10000–2500 cm−1); the measurements are made over a wider range of wavenumbers, temperatures, and pressures than any previous measurements. They show that the self‐continuum in these windows is typically one order of magnitude stronger than given in representations of the continuum widely used in climate and weather prediction models. These results are also not consistent with current theories attributing the self‐continuum within windows to the far wings of strong spectral lines in the nearby water vapor absorption bands; we suggest that they are more consistent with water dimers being the major contributor to the continuum. The calculated global average clear‐sky atmospheric absorption of solar radiation is increased by ∼0.75 W/m2 (which is about 1% of the total clear‐sky absorption) by using these new measurements as compared to calculations with the MT_CKD‐2.5 self‐continuum model.
