Sam ,I do wish that you would stop taking things out of context
because the readers probably still have the ability to comprehend
the meanings of a reply.
Where would the energy to emit the next “almost highest energy,” or “next-highest energy,” photon come from?
my reply to your question above was...
the same place !!!
the atom continues to release its excess energy.
I believe that my reply was clear enough as we already know
that the atom releases its excess energy as it cools.
Because the “group of atoms” isn’t cooling, is it?
yes the group of atoms are cooling but when you use the words
"group of atoms" I think that would be sort of misleading
and the words
(layers of atoms at certain temperature ranges) should be used
instead.
you certainly must not think that it would be likely that
any two atoms located within a distance of a mile or so
would have a temperature differential that would be significant.
I certainly dont.
Well, I’m glad to see you’re maybe starting to see the need for a group of atoms,
if you want to describe what is really creating the solar spectrum.
not really as the temperature differences that would be felt by a "group of atoms" would not be local.
.
the temperature differences would be in layers where the
temperatures gradually decrease as you get closer to the suns surface.
By your logic here, a greenhouse shouldn’t work either, since it is blocking all that heat coming from the sun.
no, a greenhouse does not block the heat from the sun
it is an enclosure that holds the heat from the
sun inside the enclosure.
note: glass is not used in the below example.
if you fill that enclosure with nothing but co2 molecules
then the co2 molecules will absorb the frequencies
that a co2 molecule can absorb and at the same time it becomes
a sun blocker because it has prevented that amount of the suns
heat from reaching the inside surfaces of the greenhouse.
the important part in the above is that the excited co2
molecules cannot absorb another photon until they emit a
photon ...
once the co2 molecules have become saturated they cannot
absorb more sunlight so portions of the sunlight will reach
the inside surfaces of the greenhouse causing the inside
surfaces of the greenhouse to warm slightly.
and when the inside surfaces of the greenhouse do emit
back radiation the co2 cannot absorb that back radiation and
the back radiation exits the greenhouse.
The planet cools by radiating away the longer-wave heat (to the right of 3 microns) from the planet, as the graph I posted above shows.
from what I understand you seem to be saying that the full
spectrum that the sun emits does not include the long wave
frequencies that the co2 in the atmosphere could absorb.
but it is my understanding that sunlight does include all
of the frequencies in the spectrum and even though there
is a tiny amount of co2 in the atmosphere the suns light
is everywhere in the atmosphere and all of the co2 becomes
excited / saturated by the incoming sun light so the back
radiation will not be absorbed by the already excited
co2 molecules in the atmosphere and the amount of emitted
heat from the earths surface that could be absorbed by the
co2 molecules in the atmosphere if the co2 molecules were not
already saturated leaves the earth.
co2 causes cooling not warming.
so co2 basically holds heat during the day and at night
it becomes able to radiate that stored energy to the
earths surface where the energy warms the earth and at night
the co2 can re-absorb re-emit the emitted heat from the earths
surface over and over again , it just cant do that on the
sun lit side of the earth.
