"Last week, TWTW began a series proposing a better way to understand the greenhouse effect than what is used by the IPCC and its followers.
The better procedure is shown in the work of W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer in their paper titled: “Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases,” discussed in the January 22, 2022, TWTW.
... the paper is especially important because it shows a remarkable agreement between theory and observations under significantly different conditions: the Sahara, the Mediterranean, and the Antarctic.
The theory of how greenhouse gases influence global temperatures is not sufficiently developed to be considered all inclusive.
A theory for cloud formation is needed.
It is not unusual to make accurate observations and calculations and use them before a full understanding of a concept is established.
For example, 16th century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe believed the controversy between believers in an Earth centered universe (Ptolemaic system) and a Sun centered solar system (Copernican system) could be resolved by accurate measurements of the planets, even before advent of the telescope.
After his death, his assistant Johannes Kepler used these observations to develop Kepler’s laws of planetary motion without fully understanding gravity.
Later Newton co-developed calculus, particularly integral calculus, to better explain planetary motion (including moons) and universal gravitation.
What is important here is that the calculations being advanced are reliable and testable against physical evidence, which Sheahen demonstrates.
Howard Hayden expands the work of van Wijngaarden and Happer in a pair of papers posted on the SEPP website.
In his January newsletter, The Energy Advocate, Hayden incorporates the measurements of infrared radiation to space by the Nimbus satellite over Guam on April 27, 1970.
Guam is in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines, roughly 13.5°N latitude, well within the tropics.
Thus, the polar regions, temperate regions, tropics, and deserts are covered by these measurements.
Using the Planck and Schwarzschild curves provided by van Wijngaarden and Happer, Hayden explains that the greenhouse effect is the difference between the blackbody infrared radiation from the surface (Planck curve) and the radiation going to space (Schwarzschild jagged line) measured by satellites.
[Both can be seen in Happer’s November 16, 2021, presentation to CLINTEL (Dec 11, 2021, TWTW)]
Both Nitrous Oxide (N2O) and Water Vapor absorb infrared radiation in the same frequencies as the primary frequencies for Carbon Dioxide (CO2).
Hayden calculates the absorption from CO2 to be about 20% of the total greenhouse effect.
He calculates that doubling CO2 from 400 parts per million volume (ppm) to 800 ppm adds about one percentage point to this.
Thus, CO2 goes from 20% of the total greenhouse effect to 21% -- not much!
It is not worth destroying modern civilization for this.
Hayden goes on to explain the Planetary Energy Balance which applies to everything that orbits the sun.
That, and the Climate Constraint Equation will be further explained next week.
Important side note:
the wavelengths covered by infrared radiation range from about 1 centimeter to about 0.0004 centimeter (2500 per centimeter).
These wavelengths are divided into about one- third of a million little rectangles permitting calculations of the areas under a curve.
[Also, small changes in wavelengths along the electromagnetic spectrum are often called spectral bands.
Special instruments such as spectrometers can measure small differences in frequency.]
Those who remember integral calculus may remember the introduction where it is shown that by calculating the area in little rectangles under a curve and adding them together, one can approximate the total area underneath the curve.
Using HITRAN, Van Wijngaarden and Happer make these calculations on a laptop not a $40 million supercomputer.
Nonetheless, their calculations are much more realistic than those of BIG science."
Total Pageviews
Saturday, February 19, 2022
The W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer study is especially important because it shows a remarkable agreement between theory and observations under significantly different conditions:
Source: