Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: ron123456 on 13/04/2019 19:51:27

Title: Can increases in molecular aurorae (methane etc) indicate climate change?
Post by: ron123456 on 13/04/2019 19:51:27

If Saturn with its strange atmosphere has auroras in the ultraviolet and infrared rather than the visible, then can an increase in new molecules' auroras (methane, carbon monoxide) here on earth be an indication of climate change either visible or somewhere else in the electromagnetic spectrum?

Title: Re: Can increases in molecular aurorae (methane etc) indicate climate change?
Post by: pensador on 13/04/2019 22:50:12

Quote from: ron123456 on 13/04/2019 19:51:27

indication of climate change either visible or somewhere else in the electromagnetic spectrum?

All the elements in the atomic table have a unique absorption emission spectrum.  http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/jircitano/periodic4.html

The simplest being Hydrogen. Then the emmission spectrum gets progressively more complicated depending on the number of orbitals atc a molecule has https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_spectrum.

Title: Re: Can increases in molecular aurorae (methane etc) indicate climate change?
Post by: alancalverd on 14/04/2019 00:31:22

Yes. Clearly if the composition of the upper atmosphere changes, you expect a change in the aurora spectrum. However CH4 and CO2 are not new species: it is only their concentrations that have altered (minutely) with climate change. Most of what we see is the green nitrogen aurora with occasional glimpses of red from oxygen. You really have to hunt in the UV  and IR spectrum to detect anything else because these elements are so dominant..

Title: Re: Can increases in molecular aurorae (methane etc) indicate climate change?
Post by: ron123456 on 15/04/2019 22:10:06

thx.....complicated....it just would be nice to have some way of distinguishing climate change due to human activity from solar variability....