Radiative Forcing Due To Long-Living and Well-Mixed Greenhouse Gases – A Continental View

The radiative forcing due to the long-lived and well-mixed greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O) has been calculated for two countries in each of the world’s continents for an eleven year period (2001-2011) except for Antarctica where no data was published. We found that for the countries under consideration the average values of radiative forcing by CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O were 1.6774Wm^-2, 0.5705 Wm^-2 and 0.2094 Wm^-2 respectively, increasing annually by 0.0255 Wm^-2, 0.0011 Wm^-2 and 0.0025 Wm^-2 also respectively. USA was the top on the list with radiative forcing value of 1.7157 Wm^-2 by CO₂ increasing annually by 0.0278 Wm^-2 while Australia was least with 1.6470 Wm^-2 with an annual incremental trend of 0.0262 Wm^-2. This is largely believed to be due to heavy industrial activity in that region. We also found by calculation that if this present trend continues (as it is very likely to and even increase) that by the year 2101, the radiative forcing by CO₂ in a country like the USA would rise  to 3.952 Wm^-2 while globally, the value would rise to 3.834 Wm^-2 with CO₂ emission rising up to 920ppm per year. 

Keywords: Atmosphere, Continent, Greenhouse Gases, Radiative Forcing, global warming