Ann: Greenhouse effect on Venus

[Jim Hurley]

It is worthwhile to examine what effect greenhouse gases have on the 
temperature of other planets besides Earth. It turns out that Venus 
is very hot, about 832 degrees Fahrenheit. But how much of this due 
to greenhouse gases and how much to the fact that it is closer to the 
Sun?

To neutralize the proximity effect I have introduced a comparison 
standard, a Blackbody planet. In the stack below it is possible to 
place this imaginary planet anywhere in the (near) solar system and 
observe its temperature, the steady state temperature when the 
incident solar radiation absorbed by the black body is balanced by 
thermal radiation from the black body, something that is easy to 
compute.

It doesn't make any predictions for our planet (Just the astronomical 
facts, ma'm), only that there is a frightening omen on the horizon.

Possibly of some interested to the teachers on the list?

To view this stack, run the following from the msg box:

go url "http://home.infostations.net/jhurley/GreenhouseEffect.rev"

Jim