21st century king canute ... , page-16

Zonetrader,

So what your alleging is that the atmosphere is like the harbour bridge painted in different colours.... Wow so the denialist thesis is that we don't have a gaseous atmosphere but a coloured harbour bridge instead... Who'd a thought it! Let's see how far we can take the analogy...

Gases fill whatever container they are in. Does the harbour bridge do that? Nope. It sits there nice and solid ensuring high values for real estate on the North Shore. Very good for my personal financial position but nothing like a gas at all.

Now what about diffusion of gases. All gases diffuse throughout whatever container they are in unless concentrated by reactions or change of state. We get water vapour variance through changes of state and an ozone layer via uv mediated gaseous reactions but generally gases just mix. The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere diffuses from where it is produced and fills the entire atmosphere. Your coloured harbour bridge analogy is not only wrong, it is misleading. Every molecule of diffused carbon dioxide is able to intercept ir radiation out to a radius about the size of of the ir absorption wavelength. This radius is significantly larger than the diameter of the molecule itself. Particularly in the low pressures of the upper troposphere, this effective interception cross section gives a low concentration of gas an increased blanketing effect.

The painted harbour bridge might make a funny image but it has a tenuous link with scientific reality.