On Earth and Mars, when CO2 levels were higher, less energy escaped

A new study by Halevy et al. published in the Journal of Geophysical Research (Vol. 114, D18112, doi:10.1029/2009JD011915, 2009) uses radiative transfer theory to demonstrate that higher levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the early Earth and Martian atmospheres limited the amount of infrared radiation that is able to escape the planets’ atmospheres. It’s a nice result, but not at all unexpected. Read the full article here.

As CO2 concentrations increase, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) decreases.

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