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The emissivity of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in emitting energy as thermal radiation. Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation that most commonly includes both visible radiation (light) and infrared radiation, which is not visible to human eyes.
Thermal emittance or thermal emissivity is the ratio of the radiant emittance of heat of a specific object or surface to that of a standard black body.Emissivity and emittivity are both dimensionless quantities given in the range of 0 to 1, representing the comparative/relative emittance with respect to a blackbody operating in similar conditions, but emissivity refers to a material property ...
Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation has a refinement in that not only is thermal emissivity equal to absorptivity, it is equal in detail. Consider a leaf. It is a poor absorber of green light (around 470 nm), which is why it looks green. By the principle of detailed balance, it is also a poor emitter of green light.
Low-emissivity windows in houses are a more complicated technology, since they must have low emissivity at thermal wavelengths while remaining transparent to visible light. To reduce the heat transfer from a surface, such as a glass window, a clear reflective film with a low emissivity coating can be placed on the interior of the surface.
Low emissivity (low e or low thermal emissivity) refers to a surface condition that emits low levels of radiant thermal (heat) energy. All materials absorb, reflect, and emit radiant energy according to Planck's law but here, the primary concern is a special wavelength interval of radiant energy, namely thermal radiation of materials.
According to Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation, this entails that, for every frequency ν, at thermodynamic equilibrium at temperature T, one has α ν,B (T) = ε ν,B (T) = 1, so that the thermal radiation from a black body is always equal to the full amount specified by Planck's law. No physical body can emit thermal radiation that exceeds ...
Substituting the surface temperature into the equation and solving for ε gives an effective emissivity of about 0.61 for a 288 K Earth. Furthermore, these values calculate an outgoing thermal radiation flux of 238 W m −2 (with ε=0.61 as viewed from space) versus a surface thermal radiation flux of 390 W m −2 (with ε≈
The emissivity of Earth's surface has been measured to be in the range 0.65 to 0.99 (based on observations in the 8-13 micron wavelength range) with the lowest values being for barren desert regions. The emissivity is mostly above 0.9, and the global average surface emissivity is estimated to be around 0.95. [13] [14]