Experimental Determination of Atmospheric Infra-red Radiation

Abstract

MUCH attention has centred on the radiative heat transfer properties of the atmosphere since about 1900, especially with regard to the infra-red absorption of certain atmospheric constituents such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and ozone, the spectral characteristics of which are presumably better known from the application of quantum mechanical methods to the problem. Actual results in terms of atmospheric behaviour, however, are necessarily arrived at by devious methods, usually involving some sort of radiation chart, such as Elsasser's¹. The experimental confirmation of these methods is almost completely lacking, except at the surface of the Earth, where conditions are similar to those reproducible in the laboratory.