Heat can travel from a colder body to a warmer body. However, the net flow of heat will be from the warmer body to the colder body.
http://scienceofdoom.com/roadmap/back-ra...
http://scienceofdoom.com/2010/05/28/the-...
Back radiation causes warming of the atmosphere. It doesn't have to strike the surface of the Earth. If it did, however, that radiation would be absorbed and used to heat the object. If there is an external source of energy, IE: the Sun, then that energy will also have to be included in overall temperature of the object too.
Pindar gets thumbs up for his comment about Brownian motion, which could be the principle of a perpetual motion machine of the second kind that actually powers a watch.
The lapse rate can not be the reason why Venus or any other planet is hot. A planet with an atmosphere that is completely transparent to the entire EM spectrum will receive the same amount of radiation from its sun regardless of the density of the atmosphere and its outgoing radiation, and the planet's surface temperature will also be independent of the density of such a transparent atmosphere.
The lapse rate is not a heating process of the lower atmosphere; it is refrigeration of the upper atmosphere. When air rises it undergoes a process known as adiabatic expansion. At the tropopause, greenhouse gases radiate heat into space, and cool, acting as the heat sink. All heat engines and refrigerators require heat sinks.
I didn't answer your question earlier, because I didn't notice it, not because I was afraid to answer it.
I think I see see why you are confused.
The second law of thermodynamics states "Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without some other change, connected therewith, occurring at the same time." [1]
You think that the CO2 higher up in the atmosphere where it is colder because it is further away from ground level and can therefore not radiate the energy to a place that is warmer.
So far so good?
The energy that CO2 absorbs comes in the form of infrared light and the CO2 molecule becomes warmer then the molecules surrounding it. CO2 then radiates the energy out again. If the CO2 was not heated by the infrared light (which is an external force) it would not be able to radiate the energy out.
I hope this helps.
Ok so it didn't help, Climate realist is correct. The second laws of thermodynamics does state that heat cannot flow from cold to hot (at least not without an external force)
Heat transfer is like a dog chasing it's tail ,around and around it goes heat rises and cold replaces the void . Heat works in the up direction (low pressure system) and cold works in the down direction (high pressure system) The reason for mas is because of the cold electric potential of space being attracted to hotter objects. As earth rotates you have the night side (cold) chasing the day side (hot) and on the opposite side of the world you have hot day side chasing a cold night side. So what comes first the chicken or the egg . Coulombs Law states opposites attract likeness repel
Climate Realist is correct. Heat energy does not travel from cold objects to hot objects. Cold does not really exist since all that "cold" is merely an absence of heat. I know, it will probably take some time for you to wrap your head around that one. This may help you - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/...
Update - Kano, are you saying that simply because we are adding more mass to our atmosphere that this alone is enough to account for any warming of the planet? That adding CO2 alone is not causing the warming and the planet is only warming due to our adding more mass to our atmosphere?
The warm surface radiates to the CO2. The now warm CO2 radiates out to space. It also back radiates towards the surface. But when there is more of it, there is more back radiation towards the surface. It is colder than the surface, so the NET radiation is still outwards, but with more of it, there is more back radiation.
In that case CR should check on Brownian motion next time he makes a cup of tea.
what you beleive is not what science says. warming is due to retention of heat due to radiative properties of co2 And h2o. mass has nothing to do with it. quit flogging a dead horse.
So how does he explain that back radiation from CO2 which is nearly always colder than the surface temperature causes warming
