Total heat (enthalpy) versus the IR measurements

Gerald Ratzer, Douglas Lightfoot

Private communication to John Shanahan

August 3, 2023

Our research is based on collecting real data from 20 locations around the world and then using a Psychrometric chart to analyze the data.

The psychrometric chart has been in use since 1904 and is considered an accurate tool by ASHRAE. It is in daily use by air conditioning experts.

By entering a temperature and relative humidity, several different measures of the air quality can be calculated.

One such measure is the enthalpy - or "total heat" of the sampled air. Using this measure, we compare the difference between two locations. The extreme case is to have one location in the polar region and the other near the equator. Here is the type of results we get for four locations, taken at the same time -

Note that at McMurdo in Antarctica it is very cold and the CO2 concentration is high at 418 ppm.

At Tauodenni in the Sahara it is hot and the CO2 concentration is reduced to 311 ppm. So here we have measured values showing the impact of a change in CO2 from 311 to 418.

The next slide shows the Enthalpy calculation between McMurdo and Mogadishu on the equator (323 ppm).

So the enthalpy in going from 323 ppm to 418 pm is calculated and converted to degrees Celsius - 0.00496C.

We state this number is too small to measure - smaller than any error bars for an atmospheric measurement.

Enthalpy is a measure of total heat and one of the parameters used in the Law of Thermodynamics.

Other physicists (e.g. Will Happer) agree that the enthalpy is too small to measure.

However, that is not the end of the argument.

Will Happer and others have done considerable research on the greenhouse blanketing effect of the greenhouse gases.

The papers on this IR effect are very technical and mathematical, and they too show that the increase from their analysis is also tiny.

The warming from CO2 is going from the 400 ppm to 800 ppm is hardly visible in this chart -

You are asked to evaluate the difference between the black and red lines close to a frequency of 700.

This is excellent research, and again shows the doubling of CO2 (the ECS - Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity) is very small.

The last point to make is the analogy of the GHGs being a blanket is not entirely accurate - there is some insulation effect - but it is small.

A real greenhouse has closed glass windows on all sides - our atmosphere does not. No roof on our greenhouse - the gases in the air are well mixed both laterally and vertically. The troposphere up to 10 kms (40,000 feet) is also studied by Happer and Christy. The IPCC models show a hot spot in the troposphere, while observations show there is none.

Here is a quote to support the well mixed atmosphere comment"He concluded that, in reality, there is no “greenhouse roof” in the atmosphere. Based upon his findings, Dr. Evans published a well-researched article with far-reaching conclusions. For interested readers who are short in time, a quick introduction, written by Joanna Nova, can be found here. The result of the proof of the pudding is that the IPCC model doesn’t match reality, that is the observation of 28 million weather balloons. And there is no greenhouse effect in the atmosphere visible, although greenhouse gasses do have a certain insulation effect in the atmosphere."

From "The Most Important Climate Drivers" by Bert Wenkenbach. See page 23 and 24 for diagrams and links. This 55-page summary of the climate debate is very readable. Worth the visit.

Comments on this note are welcome.

Gerald Ratzer: gerald.ratzer@mcgill.ca

Douglas Lightfoot: dlightfo@aei.ca