Shrinking GH Effect Closer to Reality

In a previous article, I attempted to figure out a more accurate surface temperature for an imaginary Earth with no atmosphere compared to the standard approach of completely neglecting surface emissivity. The formula I used is: The result I got was 273.6 K. This gives me a theoretical greenhouse gas warming of about 16.1 K,Continue reading “Shrinking GH Effect Closer to Reality”

Python NetCDF Latitude Area Weighted Global Average

The earth is not flat, and it’s not a sphere. If you’re doing data analysis on climate netcdf files with the Python programming language, you may need to figure out how to properly average gridded data over oblate spheroid Earth. Unfortunately there is few to no simple guides on how to do this properly. SearchingContinue reading “Python NetCDF Latitude Area Weighted Global Average”

How to Underestimate Geothermal

Many people believe that because the geothermal heat flux is ~91 milliwatts/m², this would imply that, without the sun, the Earth’s surface would be ~36 Kelvin. This is calculated the following way: The math is correct, but there are two problems. First, this is for the top-of-the-atmosphere, not for the surface. But I will notContinue reading “How to Underestimate Geothermal”

Us and Enceladus

Enceladus is the 6th largest moon of Saturn. It has the distinction of being the most reflective object in the solar system. The bond albedo of Enceladus is 0.81. Let’s figure out what the average temperature of Enceladus should be using the standard approach. This is determined by 2 things: Insolation Longwave Radiation from Saturn.Continue reading “Us and Enceladus”

Average Moon Day and Night Temperatures

NASA’s Moon Fact Sheet doesn’t give the diurnal temperature range for the entire moon, just the equator: Strange. They have collected the data. Why didn’t they do the calculations? So I could do it? I went through every 15 degree increment longitude data available here. Day is the center hot spot +/- 90 degrees. NightContinue reading “Average Moon Day and Night Temperatures”