Are there any quantities defined analogically to the virtual temperature, but for other gases?

Question

The [virtual temperature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_temperature) is a pseudo-temperature taking into account water vapour in the atmosphere in such a way, that the resulting quantity can be used with the ideal gas law and the molar mass for dry air. Although the most significant in the troposphere, water vapour is not the only trace gas for which the concentration varies through the atmosphere. Are there any similarly defined pseudo-temperatures, taking into account varying volume mixing ratios for other trace gases?

Answer 1

Hi Asked,

I'm not sure that anyone goes to the trouble of correcting/re-calculating heating curves for anything other than water vapor. It's not that there aren't gradients, it's that the corrections, in terms of heating/cooling, aren't much. Now, when you start to deal with transport around the globe, methane evolution from arctic permafrost, ocean sinks & volcanic sources, and heat loss by greenhouse effect (as opacity vs. exact wavelengths, integrated across the entire IR range), particulate sulfate layers, etc. then you have significant stuff to work on! But these are radiative-related heat flows, not sensible ones.

I don't know if radiative heat transfers are necessarily much larger than convective transports -- it's just that they seem to be more sensitive to climate change. Until we see a decrease in Gulf Stream flows -- that would truly herald catastrophe (the onset of glaciation). -- Cheers, -- Mr. d.