The Photon Current

Fig. 1 The art: "photon current"

I. Size Matters

What is the largest current in the oceans of the world?

Is it the Gulf Stream?

Is it the AMOC?

Is it the current with more flowing water in it than all the river water flowing in all of the rivers of the world (Mysterious Zones of Antarctica - 3)?

No, in terms of the flow of individual quanta, it's the quantum photon stream, i.e. "the photon current" composed of infrared photons (The Ghost Photons).

The range or span of the photon current is as large as the ocean itself, even though the infrared photons themselves are some of the smallest photons in the electromagnetic spectrum.

II. Photon Size

The "size" of a photon is expressed in terms of wavelength and/or frequency.

Interestingly, the longer the wavelength, the "smaller" the photon in terms of the energy it has, and conversely the shorter the wavelength the "larger" the photon in terms of the energy it has (Photon Energy).

The photon "size" I am focusing on, in terms of Ocean Heat Content (OHC), is the infrared sized photons:

"Infrared radiation (IR), or infrared light, is a type of radiant energy that's

Fig. 2a CT @ all WOD Layers

Fig. 2b IR photon m.avg. Count @ all WOD Layers

invisible to human eyes but that we can feel as heat. All objects in the universe emit some level of IR radiation, but two of the most obvious sources are the sun and fire.

IR is a type of electromagnetic radiation, a continuum of frequencies produced when atoms absorb and then release energy. From highest to lowest frequency, electromagnetic radiation includes gamma-rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, infrared radiation, microwaves and radio waves. Together, these types of radiation make up the electromagnetic spectrum."

(What Is Infrared?). There is another interesting thing about the realm of electromagnetic radiation.

Fig. 3a Hadopelagic

Fig. 3b Abysopelagic

Fig. 3c Bathypelagic

Fig. 3d Mesopelagic

Fig. 3e Epipelagic

It concerns something that the researcher who discovered infrared light discovered about photon size.

Which is that size is not not the only thing that is important about infrared radiation:

"British astronomer William Herschel discovered infrared light in 1800, according to NASA. In an experiment to measure the difference in temperature between the colors in the visible spectrum, he placed thermometers in the path of light within each color of the visible spectrum. He observed an increase in temperature from blue to red, and he found an even warmer temperature measurement just beyond the red end of the visible spectrum.
...
IR radiation is one of the three ways heat is transferred from one place to another, the other two being convection and conduction."

(ibid, emphasis added). In other words, the temperature measured by thermometers is not enough to tell us about the amount of heat content.

So, the fact that infrared photons in seawater, by way of radiation, carry OHC from one place to another, means that we need to know how many infrared photons there are in a particular kilogram (kg) of seawater in order to know the heat content value.

The in situ temperature is not enough in and of itself to tell us how much "heat" content there is.

Conservative Temperature (CT), even though it is a better indicator (because it can tell us about Ocean Heat Flux (OHF) due to it being in thermodynamic proportion to the heat flux and heat content), still can't tell us the OHC of a kg of seawater.

We have to know the potential enthalpy (h^O) in order to calculate the number of infrared photons per kg.

III. Sizing Up The Graphs

The thermodynamic proportion between CT and the photon count can be seen in the graphs at Fig.2a - Fig. 2b.

The patterns of the two are identical even though the count digits and temperature digits are not the same.

There is a thermodynamic bond between them that holds together over all depths and over time (Fig. 3a - Fig. 3e).

That pattern bond also exists when OHC and OHF are specifically calculated and graphed (Patterns: Conservative Temperature & Potential Enthalpy - 3).

IV. Chasing OHC Is Chasing Photons

Imagine, as shown in Fig. 4, that the red arrows represent infrared photons from the Sun that are entering into the ocean at the surface.

Fig. 4 Imagine

When the seawater molecules that absorb those photons come near enough to other seawater molecules that have fewer such photons (cooler water), some of the photons will radiate from the warmer water to the cooler water (2nd Law of Thermodynamics).

Over time as more and more photons are added to the ocean, more and more of them radiate downward into cooler waters.

Over a long span of time, since the Industrial Revolution began circa 1750, they have even radiated down into the deepest pelagic depths.

For example in the graph at Fig. 2b since circa 1950 the Hadopelagic (deepest) ocean depth level has had more OHC than the shallower depth level above it (the Abysopelagic). Thermocline theory is at odds with that (Fig. 5).

All of the pelagic depths have a bottom composed of the Earth's crust, covered with sand, soil, rocks, sea shells, or other fragmented solid crustal material.

Fig. 5 "Graph showing a tropical ocean
thermocline(depth vs. temperature). Note the
rapid change between 100 and 1000 meters.
The temperature is nearly constant
after 1500 meters depth."

When that bottom material is cooler than the seawater that is near it, i.e. seawater filled with infrared photons, some of those photons will radiate into that material at the bottom.

Over time, depending on the coolness of the material, and the quantity of infrared photons in the seawater, the photons will radiate deeper into the Earth's crust (the red line between the Earth's crust and the seawater in Fig. 4 is the ocean bottom area where those "missing" photons are absorbed).

Therefore, to follow OHC everywhere it radiates to, the deepest ocean depths must be monitored with CTD instruments in the seawater.

But, there also needs to be some other instruments that can measure in situ temperature values in the crustal material of the ocean bottom.

Those instruments must be placed in the crust material at various depths (e.g. up to 1 meter).

Those two types of instruments will map the flow of photons wherever they go, so that researchers can add up all the heat "at Miller time".

V. Closing Comment: Great Size Of The Ocean

An article in "The Hill" has a big time comment:

"Our ocean sustains life on Earth.

The ocean produces the air we breathe, is linked to much of the water we drink, and is home to more than half of all life on the planet. The ocean drives our economy, feeds, employs and transports us. Our ocean inspires us. We travel to be near it and to learn from and be inspired by its vast and undiscovered wilderness, immense power, and diverse ecosystems. But today our ocean is threatened more than ever before.

Pollution is causing the ocean to warm and become more acidic, and pushing species to the brink of extinction. Without significant efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the effects are anticipated to become more destructive.

We cannot meaningfully address the challenges facing our ocean until we address the dismissal of climate science."

(In the climate crisis, power of our ocean is too great to ignore). Yes, the heat in the ocean is too big not to find.

That is, we need to follow the trail of the photon current where ever it goes in order to fully size it up.

The next post in this series is here.