Piers Corbyn at www.weatheraction.com/pages/pv.asp?p=wact39 (News, January 4th) tells us that the stormy weather of December and the wild behaviour of the Jet Stream was associated with changes in electrical and magnetic activity above the stratosphere and in the ionosphere as a result of the solar wind of charged particles coming from the Sun. The usual idea that temperature contrasts drive the Jet Stream are inadequate, he says, and do not explain the relationship between the Earth's weather (at the surface) and events in the ionosphere, the magnetosphere, the solar wind, and sun spots that produce CMEs, and their close relationship with extreme storms on Earth and radio storms on other planets. He goes so far as to say that just looking at Earth's lower atmosphere is akin to suggesting the movement of tree branches causes winds.
At http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/static-vs-dynamic-scored-air/ … is in the Chiefio mode and refers to the water planet. He says that AGW people generally have a static model. The air does not move and it is infrared radiation that moves – not the air, and not the water. He says this is probably a potential fatal flaw in CAGW theory.
The radiative model is all about co2 and methane 'trapping heat' via IR opacity. Down welling radiation hits the ground but then is unable to escape again. The theory, in general, appears to ignore what really happens in the air.
The existence of the troposphere makes the co2 driven radiative IR model daft, he continues. All that tropospheric co2 can only close an already closed radiative window in the troposphere and contribute to the convection that is already dominant. In deep winter with a strong polar vortex the troposphere can reach ground level near the Poles (especially over the South Pole) which means it can enhance the radiative heat dump into space. He says, ignore greenhouse gasses and the IR/radiative story telling. Look at the convection instead – mass flux, tides and ocean cold water mixing, along with solar UV shifts and how the atmosphere moves around.
Below the troposphere it is a convective world. Energy is moved by convection, evaporation and precipitation etc. The only place where IR takes heat energy off the planet is above the troposphere. In that area co2 is not radiative. Below that it is irrelevant. More heat can move you from a clear day to overcast, to cloudy, to thunderstorms and squalls, and eventually leads to monsoons and hurricanes which cn move even more heat very quickly.
At the topopause wind hauls the air (and thermal energy) towards the Poles. There, in the polar night, heat radiates off into space, as the air returns to the surface in the polar vortex. It's a dynamic world system we live in – not a static system.