I Venus' temperature, radiation values and altitude

1. Aug 10, 2017

Natalie Johnson

Hi,

I have a list of measured temperature values of Venus at altitudes from several missions to the planet. This temperature is a combination of outgoing thermal emission from the planet, incoming thermal emission from the sun and any chemical reactions going on in the atmosphere.

Can I use the temperature value at each altitude and plug it into Stefen-Boltzman law to get the power per metres squared at each spatial point with temperature because each point acts as a source of electromagnetic radiation?

Below I am assuming irradiance, exitance or emittance (however you want to call it) can be equated to the stefan-boltzman law so I can obtain irradiance, exitance or emittance from temperature. I assume irradiance, exitance and emittance can be somewhat similar because regardless of whether the radiation is incoming or outgoing on an area, its the same power value for a specific area.

Irradiance, Emittance or Exitance = Φ / Area = σ T4 [Wm-2]

σ = Stef-Boltz constant
Also would it be an okay approximation to assume emissivity of 1 or do I need the emissivity at each altitude for this to work?