Pointed my IR laser at the sky today, and it showed about -12.2 celsius. Is there no blackbody radiation in the air? Or there is such gases like Nitrogen? Argon? Also, how far does the laser reach into the sky?
In: Physics
The laser is just there to help aiming the thermometer, it’s not actually involved in measuring the temperature.
Sensor is measuring infrared radiation and unless you point it straight at the sun there aren’t any notable sources in the sky.
Even then, it’s not going to tell you the Sun is 6000 C, the IR thermometers are built with assumption that black-body radiation is mostly in IR range so they tend to measure -50 to 500 C stuff. When things are visibly glowing your IR thermometer is out of its depth.
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