Nevertheless, the results described here provide key evidence of the reliability of water vapor feedback predicted by current climate models in response to a global perturbation in
the radiative energy balance.»
Since much of this is an indirect process through the thermohaline circulation that would seem to act like ice, it would also not be part of the process by which equilibrium was reached in
the radiative energy balance calculation.
Nevertheless, the results described here provide key evidence of the reliability of water vapor feedback predicted by current climate models in response to a global perturbation in
the radiative energy balance.»
What ARM meant: To unravel the uncertainties in cloud feedbacks it was necessary to obtain simultaneous measurements of a broad range of parameters relative to clouds and their impact on
the radiative energy balance.
And in any event Alan, satellite measurements of
the radiative energy balance show that over the last 40 + years, the planet has acquired energy, in just the quantity that separate measurements indicate and in the bandwidths one would expect from CO2 - driven radiative forcing.
Additionally, physical phenomena and processes, driven by (1) the net energy that reaches the atmosphere and surface, (2) redistribution of energy content already within the systems, and (3) activities of human kind, directly affect
the radiative energy balance from which the hypothesis was developed.
Harries, J.E., and J.M. Futyan, 2006: On the stability of the Earth's
radiative energy balance: Response to the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.