Josef Stefan 1879: Backradiation and DLR is pure fiction!!Let us quote from Josef Stefan's On the Relation between Radiation and Temperature from 1879 (my translation of page 411):
- The absolute value the heat energy emission from a radiating body cannot be determined by experiment. An experiment can only determine the surplus of emission over absorption, with the absorption determined by the emission from the environment of the body.
- However, if one has a formula for the emission as a function of temperature (like Stefan-Bolzmann's Law), then the absolute value of the emission can be determined, but such a formula has only a hypothetical meaning.
We see that Stefan understood very well that only the net/surplus has a physical meaning.
Stefan would thus say that the mantra of CO2 alarmism of backradiation or Downwelling Longwave Radiation DLR from the atmosphere to the warmer Earth surface, is pure fiction.
Are CO2 alarmists relying on Stefan-Boltzmann's Law willing to listen to what Stefan has to say? Or can the work of a dead scientist be misused at will without any consequence?
Inlägg
Claes, Thanks for the reference. My German is poor and I need to use a dictionary. I agree with your translation and comments. It is a fault of born English speakers to ignore the vast body of research reported in books and journals written in languages other than English. German speakers made a huge contribution to Engineering, Physics and Chemistry from around 1840 to around 1940.
SvaraRaderaYou seem to find it illuminating to imagine that long-dead scientists would hold beliefs that would make them look like idiots.
SvaraRaderaThe downward radiation from the atmosphere that you keep on trying to pretend doesn't exist is directly detected. Here's an example:
http://www.aanda.org/index.php?option=com_article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/aa/full/2003/33/aa3874/aa3874.html
What is the connection to warming of the Earth surface by transfer of heat energy from the atmosphere of the order of 300 W/m2 postulated in the Kiehl-Trenberth digram?
SvaraRaderaPostulated? No, it's observed.
SvaraRaderaStefan was a clever man, he was first with the SB-law, empirically.
SvaraRaderaBut I think he would have admitted that the background temp will affect the net radiation and thus affect the temp of a body.
"The absolute value the heat energy emission from a radiating body cannot be determined by experiment. An experiment can only determine the surplus of emission over absorption, with the absorption determined by the emission from the environment of the body."
SvaraRaderaIf one can cool the surroundings to a low enough temperature, the surrounding will emit a negligible amount of radiation to be absorbed by a body. Under these circumstances, the absolute emission of a body would be meaningful. If Stefan were living today - when liquid helium and temperatures near absolute zero are readily accessible - I doubt he would feel that absolute emission is only a hypothetical concept. Unfortunately Stefan died 15 years before helium was first liquified and about half a century before such low temperatures were common enough that superfluid He II was discovered.
Frank