Sentences with phrase «air molecules absorb»

Scientists have to use a scanning electron microscope, which must peer at objects in a vacuum because air molecules absorb the electrons that the microscope depends on to take the picture.

Not exact matches

The result is ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate, molecules that condense with others of their kind, plus water, to form tiny particles in the air that absorb sunlight and block visibility — smog.

The first stage absorbs light in the form of photons and uses it to produce energy storage molecules, which are then used to power the second stage, which fixes carbon from the air into carbon - based sugars, such as sucrose and starch.

During photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and transform it into sugars and other carbon - based molecules.

Some microbes have evolved proteins called nitrogenases that can split apart nitrogen molecules in the air and weld that nitrogen to hydrogen to make ammonia and other compounds that plants can absorb to get their nitrogen.

Thus when the Earth is radiating with a greater intensity than the back radiation from the air, then the excess radiation will be absorbed by the air molecules, and the air will warm.

Hence the denser (more molecules) a substance is, the more energy (heat) it needs, which means it absorbs heat faster then a less denser substance like air for example.

Thus when the Earth is radiating with a greater intensity than the back radiation from the air, then the excess radiation will be absorbed by the air molecules, and the air will warm.

It also seems that even though the selective absorption of specific energy bands by different molecules IS the mechanism to add energy to the air, the energy absorbed by CO2 & especially Water Vapor is extremely rapidly dispersed by molecular collisions to ALL the components of the atmosphere, so that the N2 and O2 also heatup, and all the atmospheric components assume a uniform temperature (ie global warming).

Do photons from the surface of the earth heat up the CO2 molecules that absorb them (where heating up would mean making them move faster), and transmit this heat to other air molecules by collision.

One is that the mechanism for the GHG warming is that the radiated energy from the air is absorbed by the GHGs to heat the GHG molecule to 900 + degrees, then the energy is released within microseconds and a few centimeters back to the air by collisions with the air, to return the air & GHGs to equilibrium temperature.

just a small example: rain washes CO2 from the air into the sea - > water turns CO2 into carbonic acid - > coral absorbs that compound — > keeps the carbon for itself - > releases the oxygen from the CO2 molecule, to replenish the seawater with oxygen.

Radon is radioactive, and if it were present at 400 ppm, collisions of neutrons with neighboring air molecules would cause more warming than an equivalent concentration of CO2 by absorbing relatively weak infrared waves / photons.

As the electrons of the molecules of air absorb visible light they are physically moved in their orbit before coming back to ground state when they spit out the same energy they absorbed, the energy is conserved by the electrons using it in moving in their orbit and is conserved in the loss of speed of the visible light.

Not being absorbed by real world water, visible is not only not capable because of its tiny scale of moving the whole molecule of water into vibration which is what it takes to heat water, but it isn't even able to be absorbed by the electrons of the water molecules as the electrons of the molecules of air absorb it, so water doesn't reflect / scatter visible light on the electrons of molecule level as does air, but gives up and passes it along, and so, visible is transmitted through, also, unchanged, but much delayed.

The energy radiated downwards warms the earth (and air) below whilst that radiated upwards gets absorbed by other CO2 molecules and reradiated... and so on.

Yes, some energy is absorbed and transfered into kinetic energy of surrounding air molecules via conduction but the maority is in fact reemitted as radiation in the same bandwidths that the absorbtion occurs.

Since the infrared - inactive gases don't emit infrared light, if enough absorbed energy is transferred to the nitrogen and oxygen molecules through collisions, that could theoretically increase the average energy of the air molecules, i.e., it could «heat up» the air.

There might be 3 or 4 molecules of CO2 per 10,000 molecules of air, but at 298K and 50 % RH, there would be 96 molecules of water vapor which absorbs IR at 19 different wavelengths in the IR.

The same conclusion follows from its sudden cessation because a greenhouse warming can not be stopped without removing the absorbing molecules from air.

Since to me (and many scientists, although some wanted a lot more corroborative evidence, which they've also gotten) it makes absolutely no sense to presume that the earth would just go about its merry way and keep the climate nice and relatively stable for us (though this rare actual climate scientist pseudo skeptic seems to think it would, based upon some non scientific belief — see second half of this piece), when the earth changes climate easily as it is, climate is ultimately an expression of energy, it is stabilized (right now) by the oceans and ice sheets, and increasing the number of long term thermal radiation / heat energy absorbing and re radiating molecules to levels not seen on earth in several million years would add an enormous influx of energy to the lower atmosphere earth system, which would mildly warm the air and increasingly transfer energy to the earth over time, which in turn would start to alter those stabilizing systems (and which, with increasing ocean energy retention and accelerating polar ice sheet melting at both ends of the globe, is exactly what we've been seeing) and start to reinforce the same process until a new stases would be reached well after the atmospheric levels of ghg has stabilized.

... with the replacement of CO2 molecules absorbed by the vegetation by molecules out - gassed from soils by the oxidation of the organic material of plants grown years to centuries before: the delta13C of the air was then slightly less negative.

Note that the non-anthropic (or natural) delta13C becomes very slowly more negative (from -6.5 per mil preindustrial to about -7 per mil now) with the replacement of CO2 molecules absorbed by the vegetation by molecules out - gassed from soils by the oxidation of the organic material of plants grown years to centuries before: the delta13C of the air was then slightly less negative.

The molecule will first use the heat energy in expansion and on cooling will again condense and sink because heavier, and it will cool when its heat expanded volume flows to colder air which absorbs the heat, the internal kinetic energy of vibration, which if strong enough will pass that heat to another colder (which is why visible light is not a thermal energy, it is not powerful enough to move a molecule of matter into vibration, it takes the bigger heat wave, longwave infrared, aka thermal infrared called that because it is the wavelength of heat)-- that is how convective heating warms the fluid gas air in a room, by circulation, in the rise and fall of molecules as they expand and condense, not by heat energy propelling molecules to hit other molecules..

When the air's carbon dioxide levels rise --- to 400, 600 or 800 ppm — the stomata shrink in size, causing them to lose less water from transpiration, while still absorbing ample CO2 molecules.

4) The second - generation photons going upwards will be absorbed by CO2 (and H2O) molecules that are in the layer of air above the 120 meter line and they will be absorbed to extinction in about another 120 meters or so.

4) As I understand it, the ~ 15μm radiation from the Surface to the Atmosphere is absorbed by H2O and CO2 molecules which, when excited, bump into nitrogen and oxygen and other air molecules, and heat the air.

If the energy can be inhibited from instantly going out into space by being absorbed by 2 % air molecules then it must also be inhibited by being absorbed by e.g. oceans, and released at a later moment.

Has anyone actually calculated how much energy can be absorbed by the GHG molecules in the air?

Ira — regarding your summary comment 4) at May 8, 2011 at 7:51 pm my comment — NO, the atmosphere does NOT emit LWIR across a distribution of wavelengths like a blackbody, see my earlier comment at Dave in Delaware says: May 8, 2011 at 7:00 am Ira Glickstein, PhD says: «4) As I understand it, the ~ 15μm radiation from the Surface to the Atmosphere is absorbed by H2O and CO2 molecules which, when excited, bump into nitrogen and oxygen and other air molecules, and heat the air.

The heated gas molecules would bump into other air molecules and warm them, and like any material above absolute zero, the Atmosphere would emit radiation at a variety of long - wave wavelengths in random directions, some of which would be absorbed by the surface of the planet, warming it further.

Because of the different intramolecular forces between water molecules as vapor in air, water, and ice, the wavelengths of emission and absorption are shifted; some of the radiation from the water / ice droplets at the top of a cloud can escape to space because the atmosphere above it is transparent at its wavelengths, whereas the same radiation from droplets at the bottom of a cloud will be absorbed and re-emitted in random directions from the droplets above, including back down to the originating droplets.

The current models have the greenhouse gases radiating in their bands with the same intensity that they absorb, but the greenhouse gases lose most of that excitation by collisions to other air molecules.

Either of these GHGs will gain energy if they absorb IR from the ground (or from GHGs in the atmosphere), but then when they collide with other molecules (almost always N2 or O2) they will give away that extra energy until they are at the same average energy as the rest of the air.

In the case of a CO2 molecule in the air, a photon in the form of IR from the warmer earth can be absorbed by the molecule and raise its temperature (its kinetic energy), ie heat has been transferred from earth to CO2.

I can imagine two explanations: 1) Scotty is beaming water molecules into the attic every morning and beaming them back out every afternoon at the exact rates to mimic a capacitance charge - discharge curve; 2) or, more likely but less entertaining, the water molecules are going from the ad and absorbed state in the exposed porous materials into the attic air in morning as the sun hits the roofing materials and drives water vapor out of the sheathing, rafters, open cell foam into the attic air.