Does the atmosphere store heat? Or, does it transport heat? It’s easy to get the impression that it does both, but I have come to believe otherwise, all because the atmosphere functions so much like a highway. Highways are full of cars and trucks that are constantly rushing from end to end in both directions They sometimes pause for a spell along the way, but in no sense are they ‘stored’ by the highway. By comparison the atmosphere is serving pretty much the same function, this time by movement of radiant energy in the form of photons, that are coming and going in two primary directions, about like cars and trucks except for a few extra complications that stand in the way. In spite of the complications, in no sense can we say that the atmosphere serves as a store of photons for any length of time. At every moment there are about as many photons leaving the atmosphere as there are entering, whether or not they have all actually reached the surface, and in every case their speed of travel is assumed to be the same as the measured speed of light, leaving no time to be wasted in any of the movement. Now we need to talk about heat.
Just 5mg cialis tablets remember, this is a therapy mode that our own biology wires into our systems. Indeed, if viagra prescription is something you need to know the causes of erectile dysfunction. Several clinical trials have shown that drinking 8oz of pomegranate juice a day can slow the rate of increase of buy levitra online http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482456154_add_file_7.pdf PSA levels in men with proste cancer. Best herbal remedies helps in icks.org purchase generic cialis curing hyperglycemia problems without the use of insulin.
.
So where does heat fit in? Heat is not a ‘thing’ that can exist by itself. Heat is always a property of something else, more specifically, at least in this case, the property of a bit of matter that has been slammed into and absorbed by a fast-moving photon, which is potent enough to make it vibrate. The atmospheric highway is by definition loaded with matter, matter of a special type, in the form of gases and tiny particles that have the ability to stay aloft. Most of the gas molecules, like those of oxygen and nitrogen, are for the most part able to avoid being run into by photons, and thus stay unheated. Others are not so fortunate. They exist in a way that might be described as like potholes on the road. As such, whenever a ‘pothole’ is hit it absorbs the photon, starts to vibrate from the impact and also reacts by sending off a photon of its own which can move in any direction of its own choice. The pothole doesn’t go anywhere as a result, but can expect to get hit again very soon thereafter with the same kind of result.
.
I believe those vibrations are the source of the property we call heat. When you hook up a sensor to the molecule, or better yet to a whole lot of molecules that are having the same kind of experience, the sensor will ‘feel’ those vibrations by catching the photons that are given off at the same moment, then registering very similar vibrations within its own molecules for convenient readout. The question that remains is how long does a relevant vibration last within any one molecule that has been hit by any one of the photons mentioned? I am not sure of whether it has actually been measured, but my guess for the answer is not very long. There is still the possibility that any one molecule could be struck repeatedly in a fast-moving situation, with collisions and vibrations strung together quickly enough to give the appearance of constant heat. Thereafter, any kind of interruption that changes the pace should immediately be translated into a change in heat sensation. Under that scenario there is no time available for heat storage, nor any place to store it that is not subject to either constant renewal or a degree of change. I can see why this would be true when the state of matter is gaseous, as true of the atmosphere, and released photons are free to roam. It may be quite another story when the molecules of matter are densely packed and energy mobility is ruled by conduction and confinement, where photons have no highway at hand and are only liberated on a space-bound track much less often.
.
The atmosphere, of course, is not a stationary highway in whole or in part. Most of the time it is moving and mixing, propelled by winds, some up high and some down low, always with the result of alterations in the position of air above Earth’s surface. From the air’s point of view the surface below will keep changing and the amount of radiation coming off the surface will also change, and thus a new number of photons will be entering the highway plus a new number of pothole collisions that cause heat to be created in the atmosphere. From the surface’s point of view the radiation given off may have stayed the same but the molecular makeup of the air above will probably have changed, so because there are a new number of molecules (especially water vapor) serving as potholes that have been hit, followed by a normal reaction, a new number of photons will be returning to the surface, thence to serve as a new source of heat. Moist air by itself will ‘feel’ warmer than drier air at any spot above the surface because of more photon-molecule collisions, and will also redirect a certain amount of photon movement back toward the surface, where possibilities include the reabsorbing of energy back into dense surface matter and an extended waiting period before its eventual release.
.
In summary, I think the heating and cooling of any parcel of air is always a continuous process, existing only from moment to moment. The mechanism that makes it so—involving the variable presence of greenhouse gases—is precisely the same mechanism that is used in explaining the evolution of climate change, as discussed in these letters last week.
Carl