Green house effect revisited

[tabatha]

Excellent article, with all of the physics:

Every once in a while it is worth reviewing the basic physics behind the greenhouse effect and global warming. Sometimes all the debate about global warming in the media loses focus of the fact that the world really is governed by the laws of physics. Unfortunately, many internet explanations get dumbed down to the point of having an atmosphere that serves as a single “slab” between the ground and space, and has a bunch of colorful arrows coming out of it and bouncing off it, etc. This is a useless explanation, and gives no justice to understanding what is happening. Two encounters in the outside world recently prompted me to do another post just to have a reference handy, and I’m using this to replace an older post which I entitled “just a few more molecules.” There’s also been an interesting episode with Dr. Andy Lacis from NASA GISS over at Dot Earth which I’d like to elaborate on.

We begin with the Planck function, which describes the radiation emitted from a blackbody at a specified wavelength and temperature:

http://chriscolose.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/greenhouse-effect-revisited/

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Very nice

Some of our visitors would do well to read it, although I doubt that they will.

[tabatha]

2. Or understand it.