Atmospheric Sciences & Global Change Division
Research Highlights

January 2005

ARM Program Research Improves Longwave Radiative Transfer Models

As published in a series of recent journal articles, researchers sponsored by the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program have completed a major effort aimed at improving parameterizations of radiative transfer used in global climate models. Their development and validation of a line-by-line radiative transfer model (LBLRTM) resulted in a reduction in errors of longwave flux calculations from 6 to 8 W/m2 to less than 1.5 W/m2. This improvement reduces the uncertainties in model simulations of heating and cooling of the earth's atmosphere.