Cluster mechanism of the anti-greenhouse effect

Abstract

The Earth’s atmosphere is a complex dynamic system, which protects the biosphere. One of the significant factors impacting Earth’s radiation balance is the greenhouse effect. Its enhancement is not only due to an increase in solar activity but also due to an increase in the content of gases with pronounced radiation properties in the atmosphere. Water vapor and atmospheric gases, such as CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, and others, have a decisive influence on the formation of thermal radiation fields. However, according to the Le Chatelier principle, there are opposite compensating processes in the atmosphere. Clustering of greenhouse gases can be considered as one of these processes. The autoregulation of the atmosphere composition due to the formation of water clusters and their subsequent capture of greenhouse gas molecules is, as a rule, ignored in estimates of Earth’s radiation balance. The characteristics of infrared (IR) radiation absorption by water clusters incorporating molecules of the most abundant atmospheric gases—nitrogen, oxygen, and argon—were studied in [1‐4]. This work deals with the molecular dynamics study of the influence of clustering of H 2 O vapor and atmospheric gases CO 2 , N 2 O, CH 4 , C 2 H 2 , and C 2 H 6 on the greenhouse effect. The IR absorption spectra were calculated for systems formed by water clusters and molecules of the above greenhouse gases at 233 K. Due to clustering, a homogeneous single-phase system represented by a mixture of gases transforms into a “twophase” or even “three-phase” state since, depending on the ambient conditions, clusters constituting a fine “phase” can be in both the liquid and solid states. Water clusters were simulated using the improved interaction potential TIP4P for water and the rigid foursite model of H 2 O molecules [5]. To determine the influence of absorbed polyatomic molecules on the greenhouse effect, we considered different types of ultradisperse systems: (H 2 O) n (I), (CO 2 ) i (H 2 O) 10 (II), (CH 4 ) i (H 2 O) 10 (III), (N 2 O) i (H 2 O) 10 (IV), (C 2 H 2 ) m (H 2 O) 20 (V), and (C 2 H 6 ) m (H 2 O) 20 (VI), where n = 10–20 , i = 1–10 , and m = 1‐6. The calculation of the autocorrelation function of the total dipole moment M of the clusters makes it possible to determine their IR spectra, which characterize absorption coefficients [6]. The IR radiation absorption cross section was specified by the equation [7]