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Thermal radiation is one of the fundamental mechanisms of heat transfer, along with conduction and convection. The primary method by which the Sun transfers heat to the Earth is thermal radiation. This energy is partially absorbed and scattered in the atmosphere , the latter process being the reason why the sky is visibly blue. [ 3 ]
The vibrational and rotational excited states of greenhouse gases that emit thermal infrared radiation are in LTE up to about 60 km. [7] Radiative transfer calculations show negligible change (0.2%) due to absorption and emission above about 50 km. Schwarzschild's equation therefore is appropriate for most problems involving thermal infrared in ...
Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, thermal convection, thermal radiation, and transfer of energy by phase changes.
Radiative transfer (also called radiation transport) is the physical phenomenon of energy transfer in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The propagation of radiation through a medium is affected by absorption, emission, and scattering processes. The equation of radiative transfer describes these interactions mathematically. Equations of ...
About 40 W/m 2 of this transmitted amount is emitted by the surface, while most of the remainder comes from lower regions of the atmosphere. In a complementary manner, the infrared window also transmits to the surface a portion of down-welling thermal radiation that is emitted within colder upper regions of the atmosphere. [3]
Radiation heat flow occurs in the direction from the surface to the atmosphere and space, [6] as is to be expected given that the surface is warmer than the atmosphere and space. While greenhouse gases emit thermal radiation downward to the surface, this is part of the normal process of radiation heat transfer. [77]
At wavelengths where the atmosphere absorbs surface radiation, some portion of the radiation that was absorbed is replaced by a lesser amount of thermal radiation emitted by the atmosphere at a higher altitude. [17] When absorbed, the energy transmitted by this radiation is transferred to the substance that absorbed it. [18]
The radiative transfer equation is a monochromatic equation to calculate radiance in a single layer of the Earth's atmosphere. To calculate the radiance for a spectral region with a finite width (e.g., to estimate the Earth's energy budget or simulate an instrument response), one has to integrate this over a band of frequencies (or wavelengths).