3. Application to Solar energy management on Earth
The components of the environment (atmosphere, land, oceans, etc.) have
been heated by the Sun for billions of years and kept without dramatic
heat accumulation. These environmental elements can be compared to the
foods placed inside a refrigerator where the temperature is controlled.
However, there are differences. The compressor present in Figure 1 that
allows and speeds up thermal exchanges from cold inside to hot outside
is replaced by the mechanical and mixing actions of chaotic turbulences
in atmosphere (winds, streams, tornadoes, hurricanes, storms, etc.) and
oceans (hot and cold streams) that dispatch heat within the whole
environment. The condenser is replaced by the cold zone of the
atmosphere where vapor condenses at dew temperature to form clouds from
which the heat stored at the evaporation stage is released to space. The
refrigerant present in the cooling circuit of the refrigerator is
replaced by water, and the heat energy released during cloud formation
is eliminated from the high atmosphere partly by radiation to space,
partly by return to the surface via rain and snow. The whole process is
schematized in Figure 2. It is important to note that the concentration
of water molecules above clouds is much lower than below. This low
concentration is favorable to radiation transmission to space according
to the Beer-Lambert law, in contrast to the case of CO2,the concentration of which is not affected by condensation (Sirroco,
2018).