Trends in spectrally resolved outgoing longwave radiation from 10 years of satellite measurements

In recent years, the interest has grown in satellite-derived hyperspectral radiance measurements for assessing the individual impact of climate drivers and their cascade of feedbacks on the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR). In this paper, we use 10 years (2008–2017) of reprocessed radiances from the infrared atmospheric sounding interferometer (IASI) to evaluate the linear trends in clear-sky spectrally resolved OLR (SOLR) in the range [645–2300] cm⁻¹. Spatial inhomogeneities are observed in most of the analyzed spectral regions. These mostly reflected the natural variability of the atmospheric temperature and composition but long-term changes in greenhouse gases concentrations are also highlighted. In particular, the increase of atmospheric CO₂ and CH₄ led to significant negative trends in the SOLR of −0.05 to −0.3% per year in the spectral region corresponding to the v₂ and the v₃ CO₂ and in the v₄ CH₄ band. Most of the trends associated with the natural variability of the OLR can be related to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation activity and its teleconnections in the studied period. This is the case for the channels most affected by the temperature variations of the surface and the first layers of the atmosphere but also for the channels corresponding to the v₂ H₂O and the v₃ O₂ bands.

Simon Whitburn, Lieven Clarisse, Marie Bouillon, Sarah Safieddine, Maya George, Steven Dewitte, Hélène De Longueville, Pierre-François Coheur, Cathy Clerbaux