Space Scientists, can we build sensitive enough instruments to put an observatory at the point of the Earth's

Question

shadow and measure the energy radiating off the dark side of the earth and 12 hours earlier measure the amount of energy being received on the sunlit side so we can compare the two measurements and accumulate the data over a period of years to prove the earth is warming up or cooling off and how fast? I'm thinking of the Earth as a bomb calorimeter in a vacuum flask with a light shining on one side and reradiation of energy permited on the other. Any difference should be global change regardless of the source. Do we have the technology to do this accurately?

I'm going to let this one go to a vote, as I want to expose it to more of the community. Boomer, you're the first I've run into to coherantly propose a natural explanation for the apparent heating going on. Aren't we also about due for the magnetic fields to flip again? I'm not into starting religions. Their founders spend too much time on crosses, dodging stones and drinking koolaid.
Injanier, good discussion of the reflectivity problem. Curable with proper design of the system. An excellent link also. Apparently it has been being done. I'll start watching for more data there. You get my vote for best answer.

Answer 1

That's an interesting idea, though the actual data will be more complex than that. You will have to observe the entire surface at all times to get any meaningful measurement, as you have to look at what's coming off the bright side to calculate how much of the Sun's energy is actually being absorbed. A significant (and variable) amount of it is reflected back into space immediately. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the reflection may be somewhat directional, so you need to observe from several points to get an accurate measure of it.

To some extent, this is already being attempted by some of the weather and climate satellites. One of the problems, though, is that the rate of change is not constant. It has long-term, as well as seasonal variations, and it is difficult to tell to what extent the longer-term changes may be cyclical, and what their periods might be.

Answer 2

I'm not a space scientist, but I play one on Yahoo! Answers.

And this could be great fun. Once you took into account internal heat generation within the Earth (caused by radioactive decay in the core and friction caused primarily by the Moon's motion and the Earth's inertial sloshing), you could do several other things:

Measure the temperature "in the shade." That's how we do it on Earth, anyway.

Measure the incoming cosmic radiation throughout the spectrum that is not directly caused by the sun. (We know this changes as the Solar System moves around in the galaxy, and we know cosmic rays affect the formation of clouds (global warming info here.)

Use directional thermometers to measure heat output from Jupiter.

NASA no doubt does this, but we'll do them one better: Sell this information to start new religions.

I'm thinking money, global political control, peace prize and party-time here, bro. I spent too much college time in the liberal arts building and not enough in the science building, but I'm still itching for the payoff.

Answer 3

I am sure we do, we have not begun to see even a third of our countries technology abilities. Military aerospace used Cd's for almost 3 years for data before being released.

Answer 4

You could probably worry this out of present weather satellite data. Especially the geostationary stuff, that stares at an entire hemisphere.

Answer 5

if i were you id pattend this or something