Co2 actually absorbs some of the solar radiation as it has absorptionbands at ~1.5 and ~2.5 micrometers, and there is lots of energy at those wavelenghts in solar radiation. The system boundary must be @TOA where we measure TSI of 1370W/m^2, or where we find 960W/m^2 which is the number we get after the ill-defined factor albedo has taken it´s share. 960W would be the density of flux at the surface. The surface emits 390W/m^2 which means that from 960W of irradiation at the surface only 780W is a absorbed, this comes from what is absorbed in 1m^2 is emitted by 2m^2. Since only half of the sphere is irradiated by the sun. From emitted 390W/m^2 into the atmosphere we get a mean atmospheric temperature of 255K, which is only 240W/m^2. From emissionspectrum at the TOA we can see the temperature of co2 at the wavelenghts it absorbs, which is ~200K or about 100W/m^2. From this we can see that the surface heats the atmosphere and the surface gets more than enough energy from the sun, but it is kind enough to share it with some air. What really happens is that the atmosphere is a porous extension of the surface, that is incapable of absorbing much of solar radiation, and that it is the result of the sun heating the earth surface. Some gasses like water get excited from the heat, carrying energy upwards as gas. This rise of matter from the surface from added heat of the sun is very much like the excited atom. Energy lifts up the atmosphere and earth, as well as the other planets in the solar system, is an excited planet. The gasses in the atmosphere doesn´t heat the surface, they get heated from the surface. The greenhousetheory is solely based on the assumption that the laws of nature for temperature, <PERSON>-boltzmann law, doesn´t apply for the surface of the earth and that it is warmer than what laws of nature can explain. A very strange starting point for a theory. 184
But there are many ways to show that the surface gets more than enough energy to get to the temperature we experience on the surface. One way is measurements, another way is simple calculations of heat transfer. The temperature of 255K as the "blackbody temperature" is totally misunderstood in greenhouse theory. It is what the system would be at if it was equally warm all the way through with a surface that was infinitly thin. There is no energy missing in solar radiation to heat the earth to a mean temperature of 288K. Actually, if heat transfer is calculated step by step from TOA using W/m^3 instead of W/m^2, to account for that the mass of earth must be heated to an extent where it can radiate a density of 390W/m^2, there is no need to use albedo. Since surface temperature is measured at a distance above the actual surface it is more correct to calculate by volume. Another reason is that we are inside the system, so surfaces are not actually surfaces, they are volumes inside a system. We are immersed in a bath of fluid consisting of the absorbing gasses. If it is done that way one does not lose a single Watt. The "blackbody temperature" will then be 342W/m^2 or 278.78K, and that is very close to the surface. If the system would be a blackbody, the whole system including the solid earth mass, would have a temperature of 279K at the top of atmosphere. So, greenhousegasses interact with radiation by getting heated and spreading that heat from a 2-dimensional surface to a threedimensional volume, moving energy around the earth to the night side faster than earth rotates. Since the cooling of earth mainly happens at the dark side where the sun doesn´t shine, the atmosphere cools the surface more efficiently by moving faster than the earth spins. And by extending the twodimensional surface to threedimensional volume, dividing the energy over more matter at a much lower density in the gasses. 184