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[Phys-l] CO2 Doesn't Heat the Atmosphere ...



... or so it is claimed at a quite popular anti global warming blog (
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/05/co2-heats-the-atmosphere-a-counter
-view/ )



Specifically, they assert "A volume of gas in Local Thermodynamic
Equilibrium (LTE) cannot be heated by CO2." I was hoping some of the
more thermodynamically minded of you might take a look and present your
opinion. I wanted to be a little more sure before I tried posting a
reply there.



My first impression is that this statement is correct as far as it goes,
but that the CO2 is NOT in LTE with the N2.



There is a photon gas that is not in thermal equilibrium with the
physical gases in the atmosphere. The photons CAN transfer energy to
the CO2. This means the CO2 is NOT in thermal equilibrium with the N2
(the CO2 always being slightly warmer due to the interaction with the
"hot" photon gas). This allows the CO2 to indeed transfer energy to the
N2 and provide a warming to the atmosphere.





Tim Folkerts