Modified Budyko Model of Global Climate and its Response to Cloudiness Variation

Abstract

Budyko's global climate model where the meridional heat transfer of the form β(T-Tₚ) is shown to be equivalent to North's model, where the heat transfer is by diffusion. The coeffecient of diffusion is specified so as to be consistent with Budyko's empirical data. Here, T and Tₚ stand for the local and planetary temperatures, respectively. The global climatic model so obtained is used to calculate the response of Tₚ for a for a variation of the solar constant, Q. It has been found that ⊿Tₚ＝0.56°C for a one peacent increase in Q, which is far less than Budyko's and Schneider's results. Again, the albedo change, owing to a cloudiness variation obtained by Henderson-Sellers, is used to calculate the planetary temperature in terms of the cloudiness, n for a fixed Q. Under the present climatic condition, ⊿Tₚ＝-0.8°C for a one percent increase of cloudiness.