> I do recall someone explicitly stating that radiation is a poor means of losing heat compared to convection and conduction - which seems to just be wrong. Ye

> I do recall someone explicitly stating that radiation is a poor means of losing heat compared to convection and conduction - which seems to just be wrong. Yes -- it's a common belief, and it's wrong. Under clear skies after dark, objects on the surface that are convectively coupled to the atmosphere will quickly fall below air temperature because of radiation heat loss, which can produce what is called "radiation fog", so named because it's caused by the air being cooled by the ground, which in turn has been cooled by direct radiation into space. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog#Radiation_fog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog#Radiation_fog