Open Thread

I recently downloaded more of the hourly “vertical integral of energy conversion” values from the ERA5 reanalysis model to demonstrate certain implications. Earlier analyses were for selected latitudes. This time we go in the other direction, at selected longitudes.

The values are for all hours of 2024, at all latitudes, for 8 specific longitude positions: 0E, 45E, 90E, 135E, 180W, 135W, 90W, 45W.  See the first 8 plots in the Google Drive folder linked below.  The horizontal scale is +/- 30,000 W/m^2 to capture all, or almost all, of the individual hourly values.  Degrees latitude is on the vertical scale, from -90 (S) to +90 (N) in 1/4 degree steps.
  
The second 8 plots (numbered 9 through 16) give the mean of all 8784 hourly values for 2024 at each latitude position for the selected longitude. The horizontal scale is +/- 500 W/m^2 to capture all, or almost all, of these mean values.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_dGJGuONo5KuKzrIV2biXxWORJQGCmSB?usp=sharing

From these plots, it is apparent that energy conversion is NOT a zero-sum process anywhere on the planet. A negative value of the annual mean at a particular latitude implies a net conversion of [internal energy + potential energy] -> [kinetic energy]. A positive value implies a net conversion of [kinetic energy] -> [internal energy + potential energy]. This relates to high pressure systems (sinking air) and low pressure systems (rising air) we experience as weather and as regional patterns of typical weather. The mechanisms driving horizontal transport of energy from the tropics to the poles are involved here, including the powerful effect of the latent energy of water vapor and its release in cloud formation and precipitation.

A further implication from the large +/- magnitudes of these values is that there is no sound physical basis for expecting a rising concentration of CO2 to impose a radiative “Earth Energy Imbalance” on the planet as a whole. Please think about this in the context of the recent decades of media-amplified social conditioning about the (poorly named) “greenhouse effect” and emissions of “greenhouse gases.” Rising concentrations of IR-active trace gases are not capable of exerting a perceptible influence, on any trend of any climate variable, that could ever be isolated from within the general circulation for positive confirmation of cause-and-effect. Spectral profiles, whether computed or observed, do not suffice for attribution of a reported “warming” trend.

Backgound: For more explanation, with references, about the long-established concept of energy conversion within the atmosphere, please start with the Readme_072425.pdf document in this folder from last year. Then look at the time-lapse video, plots, and histograms. Readers here at WUWT have seen this before.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PDJP3F3rteoP99lR53YKp2fzuaza7Niz?usp=drive_link

Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

P.S. There is a bonus cell phone video of my laptop screen in the first Google Drive folder showing plots generated in R in a loop script, using the hourly VIEC parameter for longitude 0E at all latitudes for the entire year 2024 at 6-hour steps. Caution – the video is a 250MB file. All of the 8 longitude selections look similar using this display method.