2004-12-16

Me in Nature (sort of)

I have a translation of Fourier's 1827 paper "MEMOIR on the temperature of the earth and planetary spaces" at http://www.wmconnolley.org.uk/sci/fourier_1827/. I did the translation because I thought it was the original GH paper; it isn't, but it was fun to translate anyway. Maybe it will be fun for you to read it...

Anyway, R T Pierrehumbert has a recent article in Nature about the Fourier paper: Warming the world (December 13, 2004) RAYMOND T. PIERREHUMBERT. Greenhouse effect: Fourier's concept of planetary energy balance is still relevant today. You'll find RTP's translation here. Note the ref to my trans :-)

RTP makes the interesting point that Fourier, incorrectly, believed that the temperature of space was somewhat less than the temperature of the poles; a point I made quite a few years ago... :-(

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