_________________________________________________
- "the deep relationship between equilibrium temperatures and gravity" -
The only obvious one is the change in temperature of a gas with adiabatic expansion or compression. This then leads to a Lapse Rate - the rate at which atmospheric temperature decreases with an increase in altitude (see Lapse Rate in Wikipedia).
In reality, due to the inhomogeneity of the atmosphere and interactions with radiation the Lapse Rate is just an idealised figure (see Atmospheric temperature in Wikipedia). There is certainly no simple application when comparing different planets.
As to greenhouse gases, they actually interfere with the idealised calculations of lapse rates as they assume some sort of even warming, and do not calculate radiative heat transfers. In short increases in CO2 result in increased warmth in the troposphere with cooling in the stratosphere and above.
- "But I see no evidence that the journeyman "climate scientist" has anywhere near that background in "thermostatics"" -
They most certainly do, this sort of physics is the simple basics of what they need to understand. Bob seems to be making some bizarre claim of a greater understanding of climate physics than climate physicists.
From this he also appears to be hinting at the impossibility of radiative forcing changing the temperature by assuming that simplistic idealised physics are the be all and end all of reality.
