A
Astranbrulth
Guest
Sorry, this will have to be a short post.
The book in question is "Nemesis" by Dr Richard Muller.
Train is at least partly right; dust and smoke tend to absorb heat rather than reflect it as do clouds, this is kind f like the greenhouse effect of Venus.
The key, however, is that the altitude of these clouds would essentially cause the heat absorption / reflection process that normally occurs at ground level to occur much higher up. What in effect happens is that direct sunlight is blocked, and the radiated heat is only about half of what the Earth normally recieves.
Calculated estimates, even taking into account the fact that there are several layers to the Earth's atmosphere that provide additional insulation - have a projected surface temperature of minus 20 degrees centigrade.
Even worse, scientists speculate that with the large amounts of water vapour being frozen out of the atmosphere in the form of snow ... even the return of sunlight once the dust settles might not cause temperatures to return to normal. This is because ice reflects heat far better than earth; the world could be stuck in an Ice Age for a long, long time.
I'll post more later, when I have more time.
--Astranbrulth--
The book in question is "Nemesis" by Dr Richard Muller.
Train is at least partly right; dust and smoke tend to absorb heat rather than reflect it as do clouds, this is kind f like the greenhouse effect of Venus.
The key, however, is that the altitude of these clouds would essentially cause the heat absorption / reflection process that normally occurs at ground level to occur much higher up. What in effect happens is that direct sunlight is blocked, and the radiated heat is only about half of what the Earth normally recieves.
Calculated estimates, even taking into account the fact that there are several layers to the Earth's atmosphere that provide additional insulation - have a projected surface temperature of minus 20 degrees centigrade.
Even worse, scientists speculate that with the large amounts of water vapour being frozen out of the atmosphere in the form of snow ... even the return of sunlight once the dust settles might not cause temperatures to return to normal. This is because ice reflects heat far better than earth; the world could be stuck in an Ice Age for a long, long time.
I'll post more later, when I have more time.
--Astranbrulth--
