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Planck's Law is one of the most important concepts in modern physics. It has much importance
for biometeorology for it gives us information about the spectral emission of energy from the
Sun.
Plancks Laws defines the amount of energy emitted as a function of the temperature and the
wavelength of the source with units of J m -3 s-1. Its essentially a probability distribution for the
change in energy with a respect to the change in wavelength:
Mathematical manipulation of Plancks Law yields useful insights about the transfer of
electromagnetic radiation.
instance, yields the Stefan-Boltzmann Law, which states that the radiant energy emitted by a
surface is proportional to its temperature taken to the fourth power.
emissivity (0 ~ 1); depends on quality of material (see Lab Manual #5 for list of values)
Stefan-Boltzmann constant = 5.67 10-8 [W m-2 K-4]
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ASSIGNMENT
Luminosity equals the solar constant, measured at the Earths surface times the area of a sphere
with a radius equal to the distance between the earth and sun.
Knowing that that radius of the sun is 6.69* 10 8 m, we can form a balance between the black
body radiation law and the emittance of the sun, to calculate its temperature
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ASSIGNMENT
E= T4
By examining the suns or Earths spectrum we are inclined to ask, what is the wavelength of that
radiating source when E is maximal?
This question can be answered with Wiens Law.
Wiens Law is derived by examining the maximum of a function.
This equation is derived by solving for wavelength when the partial derivative of Plancks Law
with respect to wavelength equals zero:
For the case where the sun is about 5700 to 5800 K, the maximum wavelength is 483 nm which
falls in the blue-green portion of the spectrum.
Climatological records show that the mean earth surface temperature is about 288 K, therefore
the earth emits radiation at 10 um, which is in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum.
Wiens Displacement Law:
Hot objects (stars) emit radiation that peaks at relatively short wavelength
Cold objects (planets, like the Earth-atmosphere system) emit peak radiation at longer
wavelengths
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ASSIGNMENT
ASSIGNMENT
C=2897
where T is in Kelvin. According to the above equation the wavelength of maximum
emission for the sun (5800 K) is about 0.5 m, while the wavelength of maximum
emission for the Earth (288 K) is approximately 10.0 m
Kirchhoffs law: if a substance is an efficient emitter in a given wavelength
range, it is also an efficient absorber at the same wavelength range:
=
The total energy flux emitted by a blackbody across all wavelengths (E) is proportional to
the fourth power of the absolute temperature (T4) of the object
E~T4
A small change in temperature results in a greater change in radiational energy
emitted
Since the sun radiates at a greater temperature than the Earth the law predicts that
the energy output per square meter of the sun will be 190,000 times greater than
the earth.
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