Illustration of the water cycle and its interaction with the
greenhouse effect. The upper-left insert indicates the relative increase of potential water vapour content in the air with an increase of temperature (roughly
7% per degree). The white curls illustrate evaporation, which is compensated by
precipitation to close the water budget. The red arrows illustrate the outgoing
infrared radiation that is partly absorbed by water vapour and other gases, a process that is one component of the greenhouse effect. The stratospheric processes
are not included in this figure.