Bolometer Fiction of OLR and DLR

Berkeley Bolometer tells us:

• A bolometer (or calorimeter) is a detector for radiation or particles. We use bolometers to detect light in the far-infrared and mm-waves. These detectors typically function as follows: An absorber of heat capacity C is thermally connected to a heat reservoir at temperature T0 by a weak thermal link G. The absorber sees the power of the incoming light Psignal and an electrical bias power Pbias and hence has a temperature T=T0+ (Psignal+Pbias)/G>T0. If the incoming power Psignal changes and Pbias stays constant the temperature T will change. A bolometer works by measuring this change of T with a thermometer which is directly attached.

A bolometer thus records absorbed net heat energy per unit time using as sensor a temperature dependent resistance. What is primarily recorded is thus temperature from which net absorbed power can be determined through the thermal link. If the bolometer also reports gross incoming radiance (DLR), this is based on a Planck formula specifying what is to be considered as gross outgoing radiation from the detector. But this formula represents a misconception of Planck's law as describing two-way gross heat transfer. The OLR and DLR reported by a bolometer is thus fiction, as is that reported by a pyrgeometer.