Take a CO2 molecule and shove it into the muzzle of a particle accelerator, and shoot it at anotehr CO2 molecule.

Do you think you will get particle emmision? I’ll bet money on it.

Granted a realitive low energy colision in the atmosphere has nowhere near that much energy. But if one of those molecules is already on the edge to dump a photon, well there you go.

Compress two atoms at ground state, and attempt to overcome the electrical bands, as well as the strong and weak force of the concerned atoms (in the molecule) and you will release energy. You are converting mechanical force into electromagnetic force.

Think of the piezioelecric effect.

It all gets a bit hairy because your talking about the atomic level which is still not well understood, and even those bits that are get hairy when you start thinking of boundary terms, all atomic talk gets wonky.

Suffice to say if you mechanical collide to molecules, one of which is in a high energy state it is entirely likely that it will release a photon to reach ground. A mechanical force intiated the interaction which can cause an electrical or nuclear reaction.

But releasing the energy via collision is different than releasing it as a photon. As I’m sure you know from elementary physics, a charged body moving through a magnetic field can produce electromagnetic waves. It depends on either the charged body rotating with a dipole moment or the magnetic field changing over time. Most molecules in the atmosphere, in particular Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon don’t have a dipole moment and thus can’t release electromagnetic radiation by spinning in a field. But if two molecules pass close by each other, their internal electric and magnetic fields will interact with each other and this can result in a circumstance where a photon can be released. It’s a bit tricky quantifying this however, at least for me. You have to have conservation of momentum and the colliding molecules will have other restrictions. You won’t be able to treat things as a two-body problem since at least one of the molecules and usually both with have two atoms in it.

Same thing here, if they are heated and colide, it is very likely they could let a photon go.

But if you wan’t me to prove it with a Quantum mechanic equation, sorry. But we do know the energy has to be released eventually so the molecule can reach ground state, a collision can initiate that, the molecule being in an unstable state.

Any gas molecule has an energy potential, mainly because by definiton it has to be above absolute 0.

How do you get “black body radiation” from the atmosphere? I agree that there is bumping of molecules but the radiation can only come from CO2 molecules, water vapor molecules and clouds.

The lapse rate from a pure radiative model would be much steeper than observed. Convection (especially water vapor evaporation and condensation) reduces the lapse rate. So the temperature of CO2 molecules and water vapor molecules at height is not as low as under a pure radiative model.

I’ll try to write up a post on my thoughts within the next month. Otherwise, let me leave it at that as I’m trying to write some other material right now. The topic is interesting but I’ll have to leave my discussion for another day.