On 29 Apr 2007 15:48:43 -0700, Tudor Hughes wrote:

There is another source of heat - the air some distance
above the ground. On a radiation night this air will be warmer than
that in the lowest layers. If there is any turbulence at all there
will be some downward flux of heat to the lower layers which are no
longer being cooled by contact with the ground. In the case of a flat
calm and a strong inversion this particular mechanism would not work,
but there would still be heat flux from just below the ground surface.

Let's try this experiment. Take a tall jar and put it on a warm
surface. Cap it with a transparent top. Let it come to equilibrium and
measure the temp at the bottom of the jar. Then cover the transparent
top with an opaque lid without otherwise doing anything else.

Would you expect the temp at the bottom to rise?

In the initial condition, the system is open, and in the latter
condition it is closed. Does closing an open system cause the temp to
rise?

I wonder if this simple experiment would yield meaningful results. Put
a pot on the stove with water in it. Bring the bottom water up a some
few degrees and put a glass top on the pot. Shut off the stove. When
the temp at the bottom stabilizes, cover the glass top with an opaque
item. Will the temp at the bottom rise?


--

"Perhaps the meek shall inherit the Earth, but they'll do it
in very small plots - about 6' by 3'."
-- Robert A. Heinlein