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Ziggurat · 22nd June 2010, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by Xephyr

Thanks for the explanation Ziggurat.

It makes perfect sense... heat gets trapped in the atmosphere due to the composition of high CO2 and the atmospheric pressure forces that heat to escalate until it hits its maximum based on physical laws. At that point the temperature is maintained.

Sounds like Venus is sitting on an equilibrium to me...

But here's my next question :

What causes Venus' atmospheric pressure to be so much higher than ours ? Rotation ? Axis tilt ? Direction of revolution ? Atmospheric composition ?

The amount of gas there is. Venus has much more gas than Earth.

Quote:

Could that answer the question of what our maximum temps could possibly reach in a worst case scenario if CO2 jacks up to 95% here on earth...? Of course the differences of our hydrological cycle, etc would all have to be factored in as well in order to calculate max temp possibilities.

Or am I completely off my crock thinking of it this way ?

You might be able to ballpark it. The problem is the uncertainty. A 20 degree C uncertainty (for example - real uncertainty may be different) is plenty good enough to distinguish Earth climate from Venus climate (which is more than 400 deg. C hotter at the surface), but it's not enough to gauge impact on humans, since 20 degrees makes a huge bloody difference to our lives. So gas volume considerations are enough to tell us we'll never look like Venus. They aren't enough to tell us what we really want to know.

22nd June 2010, 10:20 AM	#23
Ziggurat Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 48,353	Originally Posted by Xephyr Thanks for the explanation Ziggurat. It makes perfect sense... heat gets trapped in the atmosphere due to the composition of high CO2 and the atmospheric pressure forces that heat to escalate until it hits its maximum based on physical laws. At that point the temperature is maintained. Sounds like Venus is sitting on an equilibrium to me... But here's my next question : What causes Venus' atmospheric pressure to be so much higher than ours ? Rotation ? Axis tilt ? Direction of revolution ? Atmospheric composition ? The amount of gas there is. Venus has much more gas than Earth. Quote: Could that answer the question of what our maximum temps could possibly reach in a worst case scenario if CO2 jacks up to 95% here on earth...? Of course the differences of our hydrological cycle, etc would all have to be factored in as well in order to calculate max temp possibilities. Or am I completely off my crock thinking of it this way ? You might be able to ballpark it. The problem is the uncertainty. A 20 degree C uncertainty (for example - real uncertainty may be different) is plenty good enough to distinguish Earth climate from Venus climate (which is more than 400 deg. C hotter at the surface), but it's not enough to gauge impact on humans, since 20 degrees makes a huge bloody difference to our lives. So gas volume considerations are enough to tell us we'll never look like Venus. They aren't enough to tell us what we really want to know.
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