The prevailing “Greenhouse Gas Theory” holds that some atmospheric gases that make up less than 1% of the atmosphere, CO2, CH4, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and water vapour are “greenhouse gases”, because they have more atoms per molecule and therefore store more thermal energy in their molecular vibrations than the primary gases N2 and O2. Even anthropogenic global-warming skeptics accede to the Greenhouse Gas theory:
“Water is by far the most important greenhouse gas.”
2015 Annual GWPF Lecture, Dr. Patrick Moore
PhD Ecology, University of British Columbia
The new Greenhouse Functionality theory shows the above statement is patently false:
The Momentum Transferred by Photons to Nitrogen and
Oxygen in the Atmosphere Is Not Negligible
The prevailing “Greenhouse Gas Theory” and the scientists that advocate it assume that energy from the photons emitted by the Earth, as well as those from the Sun, are only absorbed by “greenhouse gases”.
That is false. The entire spectrum of radiation from both sources is attenuated by N2 and O2, contrary to widespread opinion, through Rayleigh scattering. This means the photons travelling at the speed of light lose energy from their momentum when they travel through the atmosphere. This paper explains how.
This loss of momentum is the primary means radiation is absorbed in the atmosphere, by the 99%, rather than by the less than 1% of so-called “greenhouse gases”.
Scientists have asserted that CO2 and other “greenhouse gases” are a conduit through which infrared energy is absorbed by the air, specifically that radiating from the surface of the planet. An increase in the CO2 energy is then claimed to transfer energy to the 99% of the air. But that is only for a small number of wavelengths. There are also infrared wavelengths absorbed by N2 and O2, and this is now quantified in the forth-coming book on the Greenhouse Functionality Theory.
Molecules of N2 are lighter than O2, which are lighter than CO2, but because of atmospheric mixing, photons from the Sun pass through a relatively consistent gas mixture.
The heavier molecules are generally nearer the surface, unless they are formed at higher altitudes, or carried there by mixing or convection, and the predominant 99% of all gases will be absorbing photon energy by momentum transfer.
Einstein Explains How Photons Can Transfer Momentum to Nitrogen and Oxygen in the Atmosphere
“…the momentum transferred by radiation is so small that it always drops out as compared to that from other dynamical processes.
But for the theoretical considerations, this small effect is on an equal footing with the energy transferred by radiation because energy and momentum are very intimately related to each other; a theory may therefore be considered correct only if it can shown that the momentum transferred accordingly from the radiation to the matter leads to the kind of motion that is demanded by thermodynamics.”
The Quantum Theory of Radiation, Albert Einstein
Nobel Prize, Physics, 1922
That momentum is small is not debated, but the 99% of the atmosphere made up of provides a justification for calculating this–not assuming it is too small as others have.
Again, the paper here explains and quantifies this precisely for nitrogen on one photon wavelength in the infrared, and more detailed and thorough data will be provided in the forthcoming book on the Greenhouse Functionality theory.
“N2 gas is by far the most substantial store of thermal energy in the atmosphere.”
The Greenhouse Functionality Theory
N2 gas stores approximately 78% of all thermal energy by increased molecular translational and rotational velocities, rather than quantized molecular vibrations, which latter store is negligible for gases, per the Kinetic Theory of Gases.
When photons, including those in the infrared wavelengths, pass through molecules of all the gases in the atmosphere, they transfer momentum, and in so doing warm them by increasing their translational and rotational velocity, and altering the energy of photons, as Rayleigh made clear in his 1899 paper.
Thus, the 99% of the atmosphere comprised by N2 and O2 absorbs infrared radiation as well as other wavelengths with increased gas molecule translational velocities/rotations. The evidence for this is in Rayleigh scattering, which does not favour the so-called “greenhouse gases” at all, and shifts all the wavelengths longer, as energy is absorbed.
“The momentum of atmospheric photons is too small to allow any significant portion of their energy to go directly into translational kinetic energy of the molecules that absorb them.”
Infrared radiation and planetary temperature, Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago
However, heat is transferred to the main atmospheric gases primarily by increasing the speed of their molecules, not by their vibrations. Mathematical confirmation of the quantity of momentum available for transfer to molecules by photons shows that the above assumption is invalid.
Photons travel at the speed of light, imparting momentum and increasing the translational or rotational velocity of molecules travelling often greater than the speed of sound (the speed of light is about 900,000 times greater than the speed of sound).
Molecular or quantized vibrations have very little to do with thermal energy storage at Earth’s atmospheric pressure, as the attached paper shows mathematically and proves scientifically. The prevailing Greenhouse Gas theory is thus invalid, and cannot responsibly be used as the basis for laws, political action, or other science.
Stay tuned for a new book on this subject that provides irrefutable scientific evidence that quantifies the amount of solar energy absorbed by nitrogen and oxygen in the air–please read the free paper below so that you can be update when the new book is out.
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