Category Archives: Greenhouse Spectra

The Temperature and Altitude of Radiation to Space

Posted on March 3, 2019 by gymnosperm

This post was begun some time ago and we experienced so much trouble replicating the MODTRAN Planck curves that two rambling subsequent posts transpired recounting the misadventure. Here, and here. We eventually concluded that the Planck curves in the MODTRAN … Continue reading →

Posted in Greenhouse Spectra, MODTRAN, Radiance | 1 Comment

A Brief History of Muddled Thinking about the Greenhouse Effect

Posted on December 31, 2018 by gymnosperm

We humans kick up a lot of dust and burn a lot of stuff. A concept developed in the 1970’s was the “human volcano”. There is a lot of truth in this analogy. Back then, despite dead wrong rants, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Greenhouse Effect, Greenhouse Spectra, MODTRAN | 6 Comments

What is Waiting in the Wings?

Posted on April 12, 2016 by gymnosperm

We recently finished a series of posts on the 2 good greenhouse gas in which we established that all the “earthlight”, the long wave spectra emitted at the temperature of the planet surface is extinguished within about 100 meters of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Greenhouse Spectra, Radiance | Tagged | 10 Comments

The 2 Good Greenhouse Gas III (Looking Up)

Posted on April 10, 2016 by gymnosperm

We have been looking down so far. What happens when you stand on the ground and point a spectrometer up? Interesting things.   In the CO2 bands around wave number 667 a spectrometer pointed up from the ground sees radiation at … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, climate sensitivity, Greenhouse Spectra, Optical Material Properties, Spectra | Tagged | 11 Comments

Everyone Loves Lists, Should We Worry or Not?

Posted on April 26, 2014 by gymnosperm

Take a big leap back in time. It is 1974, forty years ago. The planet has been cooling for thirty years. There is very real concern about this. The Pentagon is making Ice Age contingency plans. The scientific community is agnostic. … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate Change, Cold is the New Hot, Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect, Greenhouse Spectra, Large Igneous Provinces, Photon Food Fight, Spectra, the "Pause" | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Spectra, Goddess of Light

Posted on March 31, 2014 by gymnosperm

We worship in strange and disjointed ways. One seeking to better understand how Spectra’s blessings arrive and leave our planet is confronted with a bewildering array of graphics. This one shows incoming light in nanometers. This one shows outgoing in … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Greenhouse Spectra, Optical Material Properties, Photon, Spectra | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Graphic Study of the Greenhouse Effect

Posted on February 23, 2014 by gymnosperm

The greenhouse effect is poorly named. Nothing about it even vaguely resembles the protective shield of a greenhouse. The effect is about the florescence of certain gasses in a discontinuous fashion according to their individual spectral properties. When they shine, … Continue reading →

Posted in Greenhouse Effect, Greenhouse Spectra, Photon Food Fight, Unsaturated "black hole" H2O bands | Tagged , | 6 Comments