This
is an official set of graphs from the American Meterological Society.
The vertical red lines were added to show iinfrared range
normally considered in the analysis of atmospheric heating or "IR
absorption." When this chart is analyzed in terms of the areas
under the absorption curves we find that water vapor has 3.3 times the
area of carbon dioxide, but it also absorbs more in the shorter
wavelengths which are higher energy by:
E = (h + c)/w
where E is energy in Joules,
h is Planck's constant, c is the speed of light, w is wavelength in micrometers, millionths of
a meter. The net energy absorption is eight times greater for
water vapor than that seen for carbon dioxide.
Note that methane and nitrous
oxide which are often called "very powerful greenhouse gases"
by alarmists are very poor absorbers of infrared as well as nearly
nonexistant in the atmosphere. Furthermore, methane quickly
oxidizes in air, becoming water vapor and CO2 where as such actually
absorbs more heat energy from sunlight in yet another irony in this
controversy.
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