Hypercooling in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: Beyond Broadband Emissivity Schemes

Abstract

n an accompanying paper by Ponnulakshmi et al., the prevailing flux emissivity scheme for nonblack surfaces was shown to include an erroneous reflected flux term. The error leads to a spurious cooling within the opaque bands; an expression for the correct broadband-reflected flux was given that eliminated this spurious cooling contribution. Herein, it is shown that the error is generic in nature, and is relevant to any frequency-parameterized radiation scheme applied to nonblack surfaces; such schemes are typically used in longwave radiation budget calculations. The correct reflected flux, previously developed within the framework of a broadband emissivity scheme in Ponnulakshmi et al., is generalized here so as to be applicable to any frequency-parameterized radiation model. The error is illustrated by comparing the bandwise fluxes, obtained using the prevailing and correct narrowband formulations, for a model (tropical) atmosphere. The flux discrepancy is the smallest for opaque bands within which the participating medium emits like a blackbody, and it is largest in frequency intervals where the medium is nearly transparent.