How to think about the shortwave water vapor feedback

How to think about the shortwave water vapor feedback | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article How to think about the shortwave water vapor feedback Florian Roemer, Stefan Buehler, Kaah Menang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015775/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Jul, 2025 Read the published version in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science → Version 1 posted 12 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Earth's climate feedback quantifies how Earth's energy budget responds to temperature changes and thus directly determines climate sensitivity. To a large extent, the climate feedback is controlled by water vapor, the most powerful greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere. Water vapor strongly absorbs longwave radiation emitted by Earth, but also absorbs shortwave radiation from the sun. Recent studies have introduced analytical models for the longwave component, however, to our knowledge, no corresponding study exists for the shortwave. Here we introduce such an analytical model for the shortwave water vapor feedback, building on the longwave model of Jeevanjee [1]. In our model, the shortwave water vapor feedback is proportional to the change with temperature in the square of atmospheric transmissivity, which depends on the abundance of water vapor in Earth's atmosphere and its absorption of solar radiation. We show that to accurately represent the shortwave water vapor feedback, one needs to account for the strong variation in water vapor absorption at different frequencies. Our results demonstrate that a simple analytical model of the shortwave water vapor feedback captures most of its magnitude and its variation with surface temperature. This way, we expand the conceptual understanding of an important but understudied feedback component. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate and earth system modelling Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 19 Jul, 2025 Read the published version in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 02 Apr, 2025 Reviews received at journal 02 Apr, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 24 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 Mar, 2025 Reviews received at journal 08 Mar, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 16 Feb, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 16 Feb, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 14 Feb, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 14 Feb, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 13 Feb, 2025 First submitted to journal 12 Feb, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6015775","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":432528524,"identity":"0e826bc2-63b2-46db-85da-4bbfa1ce2712","order_by":0,"name":"Florian Roemer","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Universität Hamburg","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Florian","middleName":"","lastName":"Roemer","suffix":""},{"id":432528527,"identity":"d4326329-55cb-4288-ab8d-9cfefe56141b","order_by":1,"name":"Stefan Buehler","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Universität Hamburg","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Stefan","middleName":"","lastName":"Buehler","suffix":""},{"id":432528528,"identity":"73859b7d-43a8-4886-ac1b-b6b2841295cc","order_by":2,"name":"Kaah Menang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Buea","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Kaah","middleName":"","lastName":"Menang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-02-12 13:53:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015775/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015775/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01144-3","type":"published","date":"2025-07-19T16:05:31+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":87220349,"identity":"1793e64b-071c-4cd8-8d24-3e64d7cdc0a9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-21 16:11:50","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":459450,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"main.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6015775/v1_covered_fae214b1-12d1-47b8-8828-8fd56cfc9749.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"How to think about the shortwave water vapor feedback","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"npj-climate-and-atmospheric-science","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"npjclimatsci","sideBox":"Learn more about [npj Climate and Atmospheric Science](http://www.nature.com/npjclimatsci/)","snPcode":"41612","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/41612/3","title":"npj Climate and Atmospheric Science","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"NPJ","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015775/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6015775/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Earth's climate feedback quantifies how Earth's energy budget responds to temperature changes and thus directly determines climate sensitivity. 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