An international program of intercomparison of radiation codes used in climate models has been initiated because of the central role of radiative processes in many proposed climate change mechanisms. During the past 6 years, results of calculations from such radiation codes have been compared with each other, with results from the most detailed radiation models (line‐by‐line models) and with observations from within the atmosphere. Line‐by‐line model results tend to agree with each other to within 1%; however, the intercomparison shows a spread of 10–20% in the calculations of radiation budget components by the less detailed climate model codes. The spread among the results is even larger (30–40%) for the sensitivities of the codes to changes in radiatively important variables, such as carbon dioxide and water vapor. The analysis of the model calculations shows that the outliers to many of the clear‐sky calculations appear to be related to those models that have not tested the techniques used to perform the integration over altitude. When those outliers are removed, the agreement between narrow band models and the line‐by‐line models is about ±2% for fluxes at the atmospheric boundaries, about ±5% for the flux divergence for the troposphere, and to about ±5% for the change of the net flux at the tropopause as CO2 doubles. However, this good agreement does not extend to the majority of the models currently used in climate models. The lack of highly accurate flux observations from within the atmosphere has made it necessary to rely on line‐by‐line model results for evaluating model accuracy. As the intercomparison project has proceeded, the number of models agreeing more closely with the line‐by‐line results has increased as the understanding of the various parameterizations has improved and as coding errors have been discovered. The most recent results indicate that several climate model techniques are in the marginal range of (relative) accuracy for longwave flux calculations for many climate programs. However, not all such models will give such accuracy. It is recommended that a code not be accepted to provide such accuracy until it has made comparisons to the line‐by‐line results of this study. The data necessary to make such comparisons are included herein. However, uncertainties in the physics of line wings and in the proper treatment of the water vapor continuum make it impossible for the line‐by‐line models to provide an absolute reference for evaluating less‐detailed model calculations. A dedicated field measurement program is recommended for the purpose of obtaining accurate spectral radiance rather than integrated fluxes as a basis for evaluating model performance.

The U.S. Weather Research Program convenes expert working groups on a one-time basis to identify critical research needs in various problem areas. The most recent expert working group was charged to “identify and delineate critical meteorological research issues related to the prediction of air quality.” In this context, “prediction” is denoted as “forecasting” and includes the depiction and communication of the present chemical state of the atmosphere, extrapolation or nowcasting, and numerical prediction and chemical evolution on time scales up to several days. Emphasis is on the meteorological aspects of air quality.The problem of air quality forecasting is different in many ways from the problem of weather forecasting. The latter typically is focused on prediction of severe, adverse weather conditions, while the meteorology of adverse air quality conditions frequently is associated with benign weather. Boundary layer structure and wind direction are perhaps the two most poorly determined meteorological variables for regional air quality prediction. Meteorological observations are critical to effective air quality prediction, yet meteorological observing systems are designed to support prediction of severe weather, not the subtleties of adverse air quality. Three-dimensional meteorological and chemical observations and advanced data assimilation schemes are essential. In the same way, it is important to develop high-resolution and self-consistent databases for air quality modeling; these databases should include land use, vegetation, terrain elevation, and building morphology information, among others. New work in the area of chemically adaptive grids offers significant promise and should be pursued. The quantification and effective communication of forecast uncertainty are still in their early stages and are very important for decision makers; this also includes the visualization of air quality and meteorological observations and forecasts. Research is also needed to develop effective metrics for the evaluation and verification of air quality forecasts so that users can understand the strengths and weaknesses of various modeling schemes. Last, but not of least importance, is the need to consider the societal impacts of air quality forecasts and the needs that they impose on researchers to develop effective and useful products.

An annual variation with a range of 31 W m -• is found in the global net radiation balance of the earth. The net radiation flux values measured from satellites and the changes in total heat content computed from independent sets of atmospheric and oceanic data show annual variations which are consistent with each other in both phase and magnitude. The net energy gain and loss by the planet within a year is stored and released within the system primarily by the oceans.

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The Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a centralized federal project for assessing atmospheric releases of hazardous materials in real time. Since ARAC began making assessments in 1974, the project has responded to over 60 domestic and international incidents. ARAC can model radiological accidents in the United States within 30 to 90 min, using its operationally robust, three-dimensional atmospheric transport and dispersion models, extensive geophysi-cal and dose-factor databases, meteorological data acquisition systems, and experienced staff. Although it was originally conceived and developed as an emergency response and assessment service for providing dose-assessment calculations after nuclear accidents, it has proven to be an extremely adaptable system, capable of being modified to respond also to nonradiological hazardous releases. In 1991, ARAC responded to three major events: the oil fires in Kuwait, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, and an herbicide spill into the upper Sacramento River in California. Modeling the atmospheric effects of these events added significantly to the range of problems that ARAC can address and demonstrated that the system can be adapted to assess and respond to concurrent, multiple, unrelated events at different locations. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society FIG. 13. The upper Sacramento River and Lake Shasta region affected by the metam sodium spill.