Author(s)

Michael E. Schlesinger, C. Bruce Entwistle, Bin Li

Aviation Weather Center, National Weather Service, Kansas City, USA.
Climate Research Group, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA.
I. M. Systems Group, Inc. at EMC/NCEP/NOAA, College Park, USA.

This study shows that the heretofore assumed condition for no temperature-profile (TP)/lapse-rate feedback, for all altitudes z, or , in fact yields a negative feedback. The correct condition for no TP feedback is for all z, where Ts is the surface temperature. This condition translates into a uniform increase (decrease) in lapse rate with altitude for an increase (decrease) in Ts. The temperature changes caused by a change in solar irradiance and/or planetary albedo satisfy the condition for no TP feedback. The temperature changes caused by a change in greenhouse gas concentration do not satisfy the condition for no TP feedback and, instead, yield a positive feedback.

Climate Feedback; Feedback Analysis; Lapse-Rate Feedback

M. E. Schlesinger, C. Bruce Entwistle and B. Li, "Temperature-Profile/Lapse-Rate Feedback: A Misunderstood Feedback of the Climate System," Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, Vol. 2 No. 4, 2012, pp. 474-478. doi: 10.4236/acs.2012.24041.