Refuting Gerlich and Tscheuschner

PDF file, so you need Adobe Reader.

Lots of facts and figures and complicated formulae.

V. CONCLUSION
Gerlich and Tscheuschner1 state, among more extravagant claims, that “Unfortunately, there is no source in the
literature, where the greenhouse effect is introduced in harmony with the scientific standards of theoretical physics.”
The above analysis I believe completely establishes, within perfectly simple and appropriate theoretical physics constructs,
the main points. Namely that assuming “the atmosphere is transparent for visible light but opaque for
infrared radiation” leads to “a warming of the Earth’s surface” relative to firm limits established by basic physical
principles of energy conservation, for the case of an atmosphere transparent to both visible and infrared.
In particular, it has been shown that:
1. An average surface temperature for a planet is perfectly well defined with or without rotation, and with or
without infrared absorbing gases
2. This average temperature is mathematically constrained to be less than the fourth root of the average fourth
power of the temperature, and can in some circumstances (a planet with no or very slow rotation, and low
surface thermal inertia) be much less
3. For a planet with no infrared absorbing or reflecting layer above the surface (and no significant flux of internal
energy), the fourth power of the surface temperature always eventually averages to a value determined by the
incoming stellar energy flux and relevant reflectivity and emissivity parameters.
4. The only way the fourth power of the surface temperature can exceed this limit is to be covered by an atmosphere
that is at least partially opaque to infrared radiation. This is the atmospheric greenhouse effect.
5. The measured average temperature of Earth’s surface is 33 degrees C higher than the limit