Absorption of longwave emitted by the earth

• clouds and gasses in the atmosphere absorb longwave emitted by the earth
• to the right, the white curves are blackbodies curves for different temps.
• the yellow line is the radiation observed at a satellite as it observed the Gulf of Mexico having SSTs of about 295K on a cloudless day. (Ch 5, pg. 1 in COMET Goes imager module)
• Note the following wavelengths where absorption is occurring:
  • 6-8 microns - water vapor (level??) (Ch5, pg 2 in COMET imager module)
  • 9.5 microns - ozone (Ch5, pg 4 in COMET imager module)
  • 12.5-13.0 microns - water vapor (level??) (Ch5, pg 5 in COMET imager module)
  • greater than 13.0 microns - carbon dioxide (Ch5, pg 6 in COMET imager module)

• little absorption occurs between 8-12 microns - referred to as the atmospheric window (Ch5, pg 3 in COMET imager module)