Toddsterpatriot
Diamond Member
he did make that statement, and it is a correct one. what do you think happens after the collisions?It doesn't matter what form the energy was when it was absorbed...when it is lost via collision, it is not IR.
That is exactly right. The absorbed energy is internal and no longer IR. When it is lost by collision the internal energy is transfered to kinetic energy of the molecule it hit. Since that is random the original IR heats the atmosphere via those collisions. That disproves the title of this thread. Don't tell Billy that you abandoned him.
Since you want to follow the energy back to where it came from..why cherry pick and stop at a point where it was IR...why not follow it back to its original source and simply admit that it is the sun that warms the atmosphere...and CO2 is irrelevant?
That's a totally irrelevant distraction. The current relevancy is the fact that CO2 can absorb certain LW IR and gain internal energy which can be passed to the atmosphere by collision. You said that yourself. Now you seem to be trying to back-pedal or digress.
After? The atmosphere is warmer than before and the CO2 can absorb more IR.