- #1
reasonmclucus
- 197
- 0
How can "cold" radiation heat?
I have enough experience with steam radiators and heat lamps to know that they don't radiate enough heat to warm their surroundings to the temperature of the radiator or lamp. How then can ground and water emit radiation with sufficient energy to warm the air to a higher temperature than the ground or water? The energy in radiation by ground and especially by water, which is a very poor radiator, is far less than the energy radiated by a steam radiator.
Some advocates of greenhouse gases even claim that ground and water can heat the air with radiation to a higher temperature than the ground and water and then have the air heat the ground or water. Such a process would be even better than the goal of con artist inventors -- the perpetual motion machine.
When ground and water are heated by the sun, they begin heating air in thermal contact to their temperature. As the air is heated it moves upward allowing colder air to be heated by conduction. I have serious doubts that radiation energy transfer can heat the air to an even higher temperature considering that the ground a very small fraction of its heat energy is actually converted into radiation per second and the energy received by individual molecules declines by the square of the distance from the ground.
I have enough experience with steam radiators and heat lamps to know that they don't radiate enough heat to warm their surroundings to the temperature of the radiator or lamp. How then can ground and water emit radiation with sufficient energy to warm the air to a higher temperature than the ground or water? The energy in radiation by ground and especially by water, which is a very poor radiator, is far less than the energy radiated by a steam radiator.
Some advocates of greenhouse gases even claim that ground and water can heat the air with radiation to a higher temperature than the ground and water and then have the air heat the ground or water. Such a process would be even better than the goal of con artist inventors -- the perpetual motion machine.
When ground and water are heated by the sun, they begin heating air in thermal contact to their temperature. As the air is heated it moves upward allowing colder air to be heated by conduction. I have serious doubts that radiation energy transfer can heat the air to an even higher temperature considering that the ground a very small fraction of its heat energy is actually converted into radiation per second and the energy received by individual molecules declines by the square of the distance from the ground.