In the quantitative study of radiation, much use is made of the concept of a black body or full radiator. This is a theoretical object that absorbs all radiant energy incident on it and that, as a consequence of Kirchoff's Law (see below), also emits the maximum amount of radiant energy a body can emit at a given temperature. In the natural environment, many liquid and solid surfaces approximate black bodies, although gases show large deviations from this type of behavior. Nevertheless, black body radiation provides the starting point for the study of the radiative behavior of all bodies.
Black Body Radiation
Planck's Law describes the quantity of radiation emitted at each wavelength (λ) by a black body at temperature T (kelvins):
where E Bλ is the monochromatic or spectral emittance (i.e., the radiant energy emitted per unit area per unit time within a waveband of unit width centered on λ). The constants of equation (1) are c1 = 3.74 × 108 W m−2 μm4 and c1 = 1.44 × 104 Kμm.
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References
Kondratyev, K. Ya., 1969. Radiation in the Atmosphere. New York: Academic Press.
Paltridge, G. W., and Platt, C. M. R. 1976. Radiative Processes in Meteorology and Climatology. New York: Elsevier.
Wallace, J. M., and P. V. Hobbs, 1977. Atmospheric Science: An Introductory Survey. New York: Academic Press.
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© 1987 Van Nostrand Reinhold
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Arnfield, A.J. (1987). Radiation laws . In: Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_146
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_146
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