[email protected] wrote:
>> Well it depends on what you are trying to do. If you are interested in
>> the outgoing radiation, then using 4th powers may be meaningful
> ...
>> So long as the deviations are small, the simple arithmetic average
>> (basically the direct integral of the temperature, with no exponent or
>> thresholding) will usually be close to what you might get from any more
>> convoluted but perhaps application-relevant calculation.
>
> Ok, I've thought a bit more about this. Mostly, world average
> temperature is calculated in relation to the impact of well mixed
> greenhouse gases, or anyway, when it's a world average, it's not about
> agriculture etc..., and in the first instance, GHG impact via
> radiation, they don't directly change convection ...
>
> I am not sure why the impact of the averaging procedure would per se
> be negligible. I've put +50C and -50C into a spreadsheet and come to
> an average of 12.87C.
First, what Michael said.
Second, it is still not at all clear what this "average" is supposed to
represent. So what if outgoing radiation depends on the 4th power? The
outgoing radiation calculation is interesting to some people, for sure,
but not many.
Third, using your example, if the world everywhere warms up by 10C, your
calculation would report that the "average" temperature had only
increased by 9.6C.
What is that supposed to mean, and who do you think would be interested
in it?
James
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