A Parameterization of Cooling Rate Calculation under the Non-LTE Condition: Multi-Level Model

Calculations of cooling rate by CO2 15 μm band in the earth’s upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere be-come very difficult because of the non-LTE. This is primarily due to the nonlinear vibration-vibrational (VV) transi-tion processes between CO2 molecules in different states. This paper suggests that the non-LTE source function be parameterized as a linear combination of two limiting source functions. One limiting source function neglects the VV transitions while the other limiting source function assumes VV transitions being dominant. These two limiting source functions can be derived by linear models. The parameterization schemes proposed here can be applied 10 the general circulation models including those non-LTE regions.