Fixed anvil temperature hypothesis

The mechanism has been identified both in climate models and observations of cloud behaviour, it affects how much the world heats up for each extra tonne of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

In the tropics, the radiative cooling of the troposphere is balanced by the release of latent heat through condensation of water vapour lofted to high altitudes by convection.

The radiative cooling is mostly a consequence of emissions by water vapour and thus becomes ineffective above the 200 hPa pressure level.

[6] The fixed anvil temperature hypothesis has been widely accepted and even extended to the non-tropical atmosphere.

[18] The fixed anvil temperature hypothesis has been backed by observational studies[19] for large clouds.

[22] Clouds are the second biggest uncertainty in future climate change after human actions, as their effects are complicated and not properly understood.

[27] Finally, there is a view that cloud top temperatures could actually decrease with surface warming[30] as convection height rises.