Black-body radiation: Difference between revisions

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The relationship between the ideal blackbody exitance and the actual exitance of a surface is given by [[emissivity]].
The relationship between the ideal blackbody exitance and the actual exitance of a surface is given by [[emissivity]].
[[image:blackbody_300k.png|right|Spectral Exitance for 300K Blackbody]]
An object at 300K (~30 Celsius) has a peak emission 9.66 microns.  It has virtually no self-emission before 2.50 microns, hence self-emission is typically associated with the "thermal" regions of the EM spectrum.  However, the Sun has a peak emission around 0.49 microns which is in the visible region of spectrum.


[[Category:Physics Workgroup]]
[[Category:Physics Workgroup]]

Revision as of 03:59, 18 September 2007

Planck's blackbody equation describes the spectral exitance of an ideal blackbody.

where:

Symbol Units Description
Input wavelength
Input temperature
Planck's constant
Speed of light in vacuum
Boltzmann constant

Note that the input is in meters and that the output is a spectral irradiance in . Omitting the term from the numerator gives the blackbody emission in terms of radiance, with units where "sr" is steradians.

Taking the first derivative leads to the wavelength with maximum exitance. This is known as the Wien Displacement Law.

A closed form solution exists for the integral of the Planck blackbody equation over the entire spectrum. This is the Stefan-Boltzmann equation. In general, there is no known closed-form solution for the definite integral of the Planck blackbody equation; numerical integration techniques must be used.

The relationship between the ideal blackbody exitance and the actual exitance of a surface is given by emissivity.

Spectral Exitance for 300K Blackbody

An object at 300K (~30 Celsius) has a peak emission 9.66 microns. It has virtually no self-emission before 2.50 microns, hence self-emission is typically associated with the "thermal" regions of the EM spectrum. However, the Sun has a peak emission around 0.49 microns which is in the visible region of spectrum.