3 ms·
At night they would do the opposite what you suggest. A very white surface would stay warmer, a black (in the sense of IR black) surface would radiate heat bett
by j-a-a-p 3y ago
At night they would do the opposite what you suggest. A very white surface would stay warmer, a black (in the sense of IR black) surface would radiate heat better and cool below dew.
- pertymcpert 3y agoWouldn't a black surface be absorbing heat from above it?
- j-a-a-p 3y agoThe question then is, what heat? From the stars and moon is almost nothing. No idea what it exactly is, but assume that a clear sky at night has about -170 C temp (you are looking at the cold universe, only some CO2 in between to absorb). So the net radiation is always outbound. And the best way to radiate are black (not the color but as in the definition of heat radiation) objects.
- pertymcpert 3y agoThe question I was really asking was answered by this: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/159856/why-is-black-the-best-emitter https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/159856/why-is-bl... I.e. surfaces which are good at absorbing radiation are also good at emitting, which I didn't know.