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I first knew John Strong when I saw this infrared absorption spectrum of the atmosphere of Earth. It was reported by Strong internally in 1948, but this diagram was publicly used by Brooks, another Greenhouse Effect believer.

6.The shaded area represents the absorption by water vapor, CO2, and ozone, measured in lab, while the red-color curve was measured from the real atmosphere by using the sun as the radiation source.

7.Perhaps it is necessary to explain how air absorption was measured in lab. Similar to what Tyndall first used, air is pumped in a long pipe with adjustable pressures, so that the ray can interact with the air molecules.

8. Obviously, the longer the pipe, or the path which can be several times longer than a pipe length when mirrors are used, the path-dependent transmission function can be derived.
9.In order to mimic the actual atmospheric absorption, the pipe could be very long, say, 30 m, or even longer, while the gas density is assumed a constant. In this way, the absorption band detected at the the end can be noticeably wider than the absorption peak observed near the infrared source.

10. For this reason, one cannot simply use the CO2 spectrum at 15 micron detected by a commercial infrared spectrometer as a reference for an observable CO2 band at the top of the atmosphere, as Dr Heinz Hug did many years ago, so did I before.

11. Still, compared with the real vertical path in the atmosphere, the path built in lab would never be long enough. Fortunately, this doesn’t matter. Why? Because the air density, or the atmospheric pressure, decreases exponentially with the altitude.

12.As a result, the product of the mean absorption coefficient, air density, and average height of the atmosphere will be finite. Therefore, by using a proper air pressure, measurements in lab can still provide some new insights into the infrared transmission in the atmosphere.

13.Although it has been known CO2 absorption occur near 15 micron, or 667 wave-number per cm, as I discussed before, further observations are still necessary because the absorption and emission signals might be interact at different altitudes, making theoretical prediction difficult or even impossible.

14.So far, it has been generally accepted that the CO2 absorption can be clearly seen in an OLR spectrum as shown in this diagram. Besides, the CO2 emission at the center of its the 15 micron band can be observed from from a satellite, as shown by the single tiny upward spike here. Further, it is argued that the CO2 emission signals are emitted from the layers above the troposphere.

15.For people who are not familiar with radiative transfer, such claims are too abstract, but I don’t think they are true based on my in-depth investigation, or should I say, re-investigations, so far.

16.In particular, I think CO2 absorption can only be detected at the center, rather than on the both wings. As I discussed before, the transition probability of the central Q branch is several order of magnitude higher than that on the remote Q branches, therefore, strong self-absorption could easily occur by CO2 molecules in higher altitudes from the CO2 molecules in lower altitudes.

17.As a result, it could be argued that the so-called stratospheric cooling can be prevented, even though CO2 molecules are emitting outside the centre frequency at which CO2 absorption prevails.

18.If so, the central Q spike might be upside down observed at the top of the atmosphere, although the overall emission by CO2 molecules around 15 micron could be stronger than the continuum absorption under favourable conditions, as shown here.

19.The dash curves represent three ideal black body radiations, at emission temperatures, 288K, 250K, 200K, respectively. Notice I deliberately use 250K to denote the OLR, instead of 255K, because I want to add CO2 emission soon.

20.Now, let’s increase CO2 concentration. As you can see, the CO2 emission increases above the 250K Planckian curve. If you look at the CO2 emission peak carefully, you will notice the Q branch at the center is downward, meaning net CO2 absorption occurs there.

21.This is what I predicted, you can call it as a speculation, which is quite different from the consensus you can often find in many OLR spectra of the Earth based on the data recorded by the IRIS infrared spectrometer on Nimbus 3 and 4.

22.Forget about the computer simulations by many climate researchers for time being, as I have been more concerned about whether I could find some experimental observations in support of my speculation.

23. The good news is that I have recently found some experimental observations by John Strong and his team, which provide a direct evidence for my analysis, than made me laugh in my dreams.