If they do, there is something wrong with the Greenhouse Gas theory
The prevailing theory is that surface radiation is trapped by “greenhouse gases” disproportionately, but that theory does not stand up. Is radiation from the surface only stored by “greenhouse gas” molecules? The answer is no, both N2 and O2 also absorb and radiate in the infrared spectrum, as NIST (US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology) data shows here, and here, as well as through increased molecular velocities.
It appears as though many climate scientists subscribe to the Ritz-Carlton theory of conferences, rather than the Rydberg–Ritz combination principle. The latter explains that radiation is absorbed and emitted also by combinations of level energies/wavelengths.
When we start to ask about thermal energy storage, as in specific heat capacity, we see that CO2 does not actually vibrate to instigate additional storage of thermal energy until it reaches very high pressures, as discussed in this paper, so high that they are not natural on our planet’s atmosphere. Vibrations of molecules as degrees of freedom for energy storage depend upon pressure and temperature, and in general vibrations are not the primary degrees of freedom for energy storage in atmospheric gases at all, as that occurs primarily in translations and rotations—the velocities of molecules, as per the long-prevailing Kinetic Theory of Gases.
We should ask, “if CO2 is not responsible for warming, what may be the cause?” To be frank, that is pretty obvious: the Sun drives the Earth’s climate, not the composition of the atmosphere.
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2 thoughts on “Do Nitrogen or Oxygen Absorb Infrared Photons?”
You’ve proven that CO2 cannot be the driver of climate because vibrational mode quantum state energy at prevailing atmospheric temperatures is insufficient. In fact, CO2’s lowest vibrational mode quantum state (the doubly degenerate bending mode at a wavenumber of approximately 667 cm-1), is ‘frozen out’ below the characteristic temperature of approximately 960 K.
Now, the Boltzmann Speed Distribution of atmospheric atoms and molecules will ensure that some atoms and molecules carry sufficient kinetic energy (half that necessary to vibrationally excite CO2’s lowest excited vibrational mode quantum state: CO2 {v21(1)}) to vibrationally excite CO2’s bending mode upon collision… half of the energy coming from the kinetic energy of one colliding atom or molecule, the other half coming from the other colliding atom or molecule (one of the two being a CO2 molecule). This is known as a (t-v) (translational mode -to- vibrational mode) collisional energy transfer process… the opposite of the (v-t) thermalization energy transfer process the warmists are continually bleating about. You’ll note that (t-v) energy transfer is defacto a cooling process.
I’ve taken a different tack… I’ve proven that “backradiation” is physically impossible.
Energy does not and cannot spontaneously flow up an energy density gradient, thus “backradiation” (ie: energy spontaneously flowing up an energy density gradient) is physically impossible; thus the “greenhouse effect (due to backradiation)” is physically impossible; thus “greenhouse gases (due to the greenhouse effect (due to backradiation))” is physically impossible; thus “AGW / CAGW (due to greenhouse gases (due to the greenhouse effect (due to backradiation)))” is physically impossible, thus all of the off-shoot side-scams of AGW / CAGW (ie: carbon footprint, carbon credit trading, carbon capture and sequestration, net zero, degrowth, total electrification, banning ICE vehicles and non-electrical appliances and equipment, replacing reliable grid-inertia-contributing baseload electrical generation with intermittent renewables, etc.) are all based upon that physical impossibility.
This is all proven in a scientifically-rigorous, mathematically-precise and absolutely-irrefutable manner, utilizing bog-standard radiative theory, cavity theory, the Ideal Gas Laws, thermodynamics, quantum field theory, dimensional analysis and the fundamental physical laws… all taken straight from physics tomes and all hewing completely to the fundamental physical laws.
https://www.patriotaction.us/showthread.php?tid=2711
The AGW / CAGW hypothesis has been disproved. AGW / CAGW describes a physical process which is provably physically impossible.
Hi, thanks for the feedback. Photons, however, can leave a cold body and travel to a warmer one. But on the average, a cooler body cannot warm a warmer one, per the 2nd Law of thermodynamics.