Robin Wordsworth, Harvard

Name: Robin Wordsworth, Harvard
Start: 2024-10-04T14:00:00-05:00
Location: 5734 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60637

Schedule

Fri Oct 04 2024 at 02:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

5734 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60637 | Chicago, IL

Title: Fermi Resonance And The Quantum Mechanical Basis of Global Warming
Abstract: Although the reality of anthropogenic climate change is beyond doubt, existing calculations of the warming effect of carbon dioxide rely on spectral absorption databases, which obscures the physical foundations of the climate problem. Here, I discuss how simple models can be used to understand CO2 radiative forcing and equilibrium climate sensitivity from first principles, without the use of any numerical modeling. Starting from an analytic description of CO2’s key vibrational-rotational transitions, I show how a quantum mechanical formula for CO2 radiative forcing can be derived. The analysis highlights that much of carbon dioxide’s effectiveness as a greenhouse gas emerges from an apparently accidental quantum resonance between two of the molecule’s vibrational modes. Besides elucidating the physical basis of the climate problem on Earth, our results may have implications for understanding radiation and climate on other planets.