Analysis of a two-layer energy balance model: Long time behavior and greenhouse effect.

We study a two-layer energy balance model that allows for vertical exchanges between a surface layer and the atmosphere. The evolution equations of the surface temperature and the atmospheric temperature are coupled by the emission of infrared radiation by one level, that emission being partly captured by the other layer, and the effect of all non-radiative vertical exchanges of energy. Therefore, an essential parameter is the absorptivity of the atmosphere, denoted εa.

Local singular characteristics on .

The singular set of a viscosity solution to a Hamilton-Jacobi equation is known to propagate, from any noncritical singular point, along singular characteristics which are curves satisfying certain differential inclusions. In the literature, different notions of singular characteristics were introduced. However, a general uniqueness criterion for singular characteristics, not restricted to mechanical systems or problems in one space dimension, is missing at the moment.