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I always finds it astonishing how quickly it gets significantly colder during an eclipse. It's so rapid that it's somewhat unintuitive that we don't freeze to d
by ajmurmann 3y ago
I always finds it astonishing how quickly it gets significantly colder during an eclipse. It's so rapid that it's somewhat unintuitive that we don't freeze to death every night.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoWhy would velocity of temperature be informative about position? Assume that during an eclipse, the temperature will approach normal nighttime temperature, and stay there.
- seszett 3y agoOf course, but what the GP means is that it's a wonder that nighttime temperature isn't colder than it is, if we didn't know better (of course, we know that nighttime temperature isn't absolute zero) it wouldn't be absurd to think that since temperature goes down that fast during an eclipse that lasts a few minutes, it could reach barely above absolute zero in just an hour or so during night. But on Earth it doesn't, for many reasons that are not all that obvious or intuitive.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoBut if you're surprised by that, you should also be surprised that the surface of the earth isn't just heat-blasted stone as far as the eye can see. Unmediated temperatures occur on the moon, and they swing from around 90 K at night to around 380 K during the day. Temperatures on the surface of the earth just aren't closely related to insolation. We've got a biosphere - and an atmosphere - for that.
- kombookcha 3y agoI really, really think the first poster is expressing a sentiment about the sensory awe from experiencing an eclipse, not about a faulty and extremely literal temperature model.
- adrianN 3y agoSunshine raises subjective temperature by a lot. I’m fine sitting in the sun a my balcony in a shirt at under 10C air temperature.
- ajmurmann 3y agoThe astonishing thing is that even the objective temperature drops a lot during an eclipse.
- lukan 3y ago"It's so rapid that it's somewhat unintuitive that we don't freeze to death every night." We would, if there would be no thick atmosphere and greenhouse effect. Think of it as blankets, you can feel the difference in a winter night with clouds, vs. a clear sky.
- gunapologist99 3y agoOne of the reasons why the article talks about the unintended consequences of climate engineering.
- ajmurmann 3y agoThe astonishing thing is that the objective temperature of the air can drop by several degrees during an eclipse. So "the blanket" itself gets colder quite rapidly, given an eclipse only last very few minutes.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- empath-nirvana 3y agoIf you've ever been to the tropics, this is similar to just standing under the shade. In the middle of the day, it can feel _brutally_ hot to walk around outside, but stand in the shade, and it can be totally comfortable. Exact same air temperature. A lot of the heat you feel outside during the day is from radiation, not air temperature.
- dylan604 3y agoIn Texas, when you stand under a tree for shade, the tree just looks at you and says "what, you think it's any cooler over here?". Then, it just gives you that face your mom would give you when you've clearly done something foolish.
- dfinninger 3y agoThe heat keeps going at night too. Waking up at 6:30am for a run and it’s 80F outside at 95% humidity… brutal.
- BurningFrog 3y agoOne of many ways a photo gives you very little of the experience of a total eclipse!