I'm not arguing that PV=nRT isn't a valid law. My point is that the gas law is NOT the driver of the theory in the OP.
-- And according to this study, the change comes from increased solar activity causing the atmosphere to increase in pressure. --
That's what I disagree with. The mass of the earth's atmosphere hasn't changed, and the area underneath it hasn't changed, so how can the pressure on the fixed area that mass acts against, change? I think you are adding the gas law to the study, when the study doesn't operate on that principle.
So then you disagree with this new study. Because it is not my conclusion that atmospheric pressure rises with increased solar activity, it is the conclusion of the 2 researchers who published the study this article discuses.
And they found that to be not only true with the 6 planets they studied, but even when they modeled a planet or moon hey had not studies, real observed temperatures for that planet or moon conformed to their model.
That is pretty damn impressive.
I’m just trying to understand the mechanism behind what they have discovered and all I can come up with is PV=nRT.
For you to say you cannot see how pressure can increase against the area of a mass — well take that up with the 2 researches of their study. Because that is exactly what they are saying.
So I guess you are skeptical of their conclusions because you still don’t believe it is possible for the air to increase in pressure as a whole, not just by wind and local air currents. Their conclusion is exactly that — the suns heat increases a planets atmospheric pressure warming the planet.
If you don’t wan’t to believe the result of this study, that is fine. I believe it and I’m just trying to understand how the increased pressure occurs. Energy input excites molecules and has to lead to all that Nitrogen and Oxygen in the atmosphere trying to move away from each other and spread out as they absorb all that energy. The inability to do so increases the overall pressure.
Even if the energy absorption of all that Nitrogen and Oxygen simply causes the molecules to rise higher in the atmosphere, then gravity is still going to cause it to impart more pressure on the system as a whole than when all that Nitrogen and Oxygen in the air is cooler. Same with all the other gases and trace gases.
I don’t see how you cannot see this.