Clouds absorb upwelling longwave radiation, and themselves radiate as a nearly perfect blackbody down to the surface. This is called

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Physics

Sullivan Hensley

6 November, 11:50

Clouds absorb upwelling longwave radiation, and themselves radiate as a nearly perfect blackbody down to the surface. This is called

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Carter Dougherty · Answer 1

This is often called Back-Radiation, or more precisely, Downward Longwave Radiation (DLR).

Explanation:

Clouds absorb upwelling longwave radiation. The phenomenon in which themselves radiate as a nearly perfect blackbody down to the surface of the Earth is often called Back-Radiation, or more precisely, Downward Longwave Radiation (DLR). The first name refers to the fact that radiation comes back to Earth (since if first travelled from Earth to the clouds). The second name is a more technical conjugate of the Upwelling Longwave Radiation which describes the interactions that goes from land surface to the atmosphere (mainly because of the thermal radiation from the surface of the Earth).