Originally Posted By: paul


Quote:
with half of it downward, re-warming the nearby surface).

how could 1/2 of it ( re-emitted radiation )be downward?

that seems improbable unless your talking about from
91 degrees to 269 degrees in a downwards direction , in
which case the probability of "it" encountering clouds and being absorbed or reflected by the clouds is rather large.
...right; and yet not impossible, but actual.

Originally Posted By: paul
wouldn't this reduce the half of "it" by a large factor?
...by some amount....

And recall, all the absorbed UV, visible, and near IR, are soon re-emitted as the long-wave IR,
shown in those graphs from earlier as "upgoing thermal radiation."

...or below as "surface radiation"


Quote:
http://www.goes-r.gov/users/comet/tropical/textbook_2nd_edition/navmenu.php_tab_2_page_2.0.0.htm
Global annual mean energy balance for March 2000 to May 2004 (W m-2). The atmosphere is largely transparent to solar radiation; only about 20% is ...


...and you can see that about twice as much heating comes from "back radiation" as is "absorbed by surface" directly from the sun (2/3 vs. 1/3).

~

Last edited by samwik; 08/21/14 09:11 PM. Reason: add source quote
Pyrolysis creates reduced carbon! ...Time for the next step in our evolutionary symbiosis with fire.