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James Toupin wrote:


I am sure that aluminium sequins would indeed have an effect on the
atmosphere at the temperature of the Earth's surface. What I don't accept
is
your argument that it would only reflect incoming solar radiation away
from
Earth and not also trap heat in like a thermal blanket. It's not that I
don't accept it, rather that humanity messing with the environment has
not
ever turned out well before. We need to keep that in mind before we do
anything to interfere with the natural processes.


My argument never said all radiation is reflected into outer space, so
please do not put words into my mouth.

You need a lesson in physics and I need practice in lecturing about
physics.
Most of the Sun radiation, EM radiation that strikes Earth surface is
in the visible wavelength, but I do not have a percentage of that and
am guessing about 70% that strikes Earth surface is Visible Light which
makes sense in that photosynthesis is based on visible range of light.
The Infrared range of Sunlight seldom strikes the surface of Earth and
is absorbed by the atmosphere of Earth. So the comment by James that
ocean waters are heated up due to infrared radiation and the bulk of
the cause of hurricanes is not true. Apparently the main contributor of
the heating up of ocean waters is Visible Light.

You certainly do need practice, but not in lecturing about physics but
understanding it. Appearently you don't recall elementary school science
class. Let us review, shall we?

From HowStuffWorks.com: http://home.howstuffworks.com/thermos1.htm

a.. Radiation - Another side effect of atomic motion is vibration, and
vibration leads to the unexpected phenomenon of infrared radiation.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "Infrared radiation is absorbed
and emitted by the rotations and vibrations of chemically bonded atoms or
groups of atoms and thus by many kinds of materials." Infrared radiation is
a form of light.

Our eyes are unable to see infrared, but our skin can feel it. About half of
all of the sun's energy that reaches us comes as invisible infrared
radiation, with the rest of it visible to us as light. Infrared, like
visible light, is reflected by mirrors and absorbed better by black objects.
When infrared is absorbed, it results in atomic motion, and therefore, in a
rise in temperature. Some common examples of infrared are the heat you feel
radiating from an electric heater or a red-hot piece of metal, the heat you
feel radiating from the bricks in a fireplace even if the fire has gone out
and the heat you feel radiating from a concrete wall after the sun has gone
down.


Also, Infrared region of EM spectrum reflects easily by mirrors and by
aluminum sequin. The infrared telescopes in use are positioned on high
level mountains that are dry mountains. It is given that aluminium
reflects the Visible range of Sunlight.

So by putting aluminium or aluminum sequin into orbit will easily
reflect alot of Visible and Infrared radiation coming from the Sun.

Now there is a small contribution of infrared radiation due to Earth
itself of its radioactivity and the fact it is a body above zero kelvin
temperature. All bodies above zero kelvin emit infrared radiation. And
the sequin will reflect some of this outgoing infrared back to the
surface.




The amount of solar radiation reflected would be dependent upon: the
amount
of aluminium used, and the angle at which it is inclined relative to the
incoming solar radiation and the surface of the Earth. If it were simply
allowed to orbit randomly, the aluminium sequins, which I presume you
would
have polished to a high reflectivity in order to get the magnitude of
order
cooling that you suggest, would tumble in space and not consistently
reflect
radiation away from the Earth at all. By extension, if the aluminium
sequins
are simply allowed to tumble, why would the reflectivity not be equal
when
it was facing the surface of the Earth as when it was facing outward?


I do not know why you are hung up on the fact of tumbling. The basic
math of this reflectivity is that a huge percent of incoming Sun rays
are reflected into space and a small amount of infrared that the Earth
itself as a body emits is reflected back to Earth. So if 99% of the
rays that are reflected are reflected into outer space, why be hung up
on a mere 1% that is re-reflected back down to the Earth surface. And
James is illogically hung up on rays that are reflected towards the
surface of Earth, for which they would have struck Earth anyway if the
aluminum was not there in the first place, so they do not count.


What counts is that every reflected ray into outer space by the
Aluminum will keep the Earth that much cooler. And there will be alot
of these reflected rays and only a meagre rare few rays that become
trapped by the aluminum.




I am open minded. I am open to many ideas and possibilities. I am also
open
to the idea of unintended consequences. I feel that the unintended
consequences of this plan outweigh any advantage that you may perceive.

James


I do not call that open minded. I call it "worry wart". There are those
that do things to improve the world and there are worry warts that carp
and banter negatives and depress those that try to improve the world.
Worry warts should not have a forum to spread their depressing views.

Archimedes Plutonium
www.iw.net/~a_plutonium
whole entire Universe is just one big atom
where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies