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[See Publications A. S. P., Vol. VIII, p. 101.]
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ON THE INFLUENCE OF CARBONIC ACID IN THE AIR UPON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH.
By Professor S. Arrhenius.
[Abstract by Edward S. Holden.]
[Note.—The following very brief and inadequate notice of an important paper presented to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in December, 1895, and printed in the Philosophical Magazine, Volume XLI, pages 237–276, is given here chiefly for the purpose of directing attention to an entirely novel and simple explanation of the vexed questions relating to the Earth's temperature in past times and to the cause of the Glacial Epoch. It is impossible in the present place to give more than the shortest abstract.—E. S. H.]
I. Introduction: Observations of Langley on Atmospheric Absorption.
“A great deal has been written on the influence of the absorption of the atmosphere upon the climate. Tyndall,[1] in particular, has pointed out the enormous importance of this question. To him it was chiefly the diurnal and annual variations of the temperature that were lessened by this circumstance. Another side of the question, that has long attracted the attention of physicists, is this: Is the mean temperature of the ground in any way influenced by the presence of heat-absorbing gases in the atmosphere? Fourier maintained that the atmosphere acts like the glass of a hot-house, because it lets through the light-rays of the Sun, but retains the dark-rays from the ground. This idea was elaborated by Pouillet; and Langley was by some of his researches led to the view that “the temperature of the Earth under direct sunshine, even though our atmosphere were present, as now, would probably fall to —200°C., if that atmosphere did
- ↑ The author's references to the original authorities are, in general, omitted here.—E. S. H.
