Wiktionary
n. (context physics English) The electromagnetic radiation emitted from a body as a consequence of its temperature; increasing the temperature of the body increases the amount of radiation produced, and shifts it to shorter wavelengths (higher frequencies) in a manner explained only by quantum mechanics.
Wikipedia
Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation generated by the thermal motion of charged particles in matter. All matter with a temperature greater than absolute zero emits thermal radiation. When the temperature of a body is greater than absolute zero, inter-atomic collisions cause the kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules to change. This results in charge-acceleration and/or dipole oscillation which produces electromagnetic radiation, and the wide spectrum of radiation reflects the wide spectrum of energies and accelerations that occur even at a single temperature.
Examples of thermal radiation include the visible light and infrared light emitted by an incandescent light bulb, the infrared radiation emitted by animals and detectable with an infrared camera, and the cosmic microwave background radiation. Thermal radiation is different from thermal convection and thermal conduction—a person near a raging bonfire feels radiant heating from the fire, even if the surrounding air is very cold.
Sunlight is part of thermal radiation generated by the hot plasma of the Sun. The Earth also emits thermal radiation, but at a much lower intensity and different spectral distribution (infrared rather than visible) because it is cooler. The Earth's absorption of solar radiation, followed by its outgoing thermal radiation are the two most important processes that determine the temperature and climate of the Earth.
If a radiation-emitting object meets the physical characteristics of a black body in thermodynamic equilibrium, the radiation is called blackbody radiation. Planck's law describes the spectrum of blackbody radiation, which depends only on the object's temperature. Wien's displacement law determines the most likely frequency of the emitted radiation, and the Stefan–Boltzmann law gives the radiant intensity.
Thermal radiation is one of the fundamental mechanisms of heat transfer.
Usage examples of "thermal radiation".
The thermal radiation leaving a black hole with that temperature would be completely swamped by the general background level of radiation in the universe.
It was pure, stone-fusing energy, consuming the very air, and thermal radiation lashed out from the center of destruction.
Surface temperature: 12% of incidental thermal radiation is derived from the primary.
His ablative layers are gone, carrying away the worst of the thermal radiation.
But the residual thermal radiation would be so energetic that it would disintegrate all those nuclei, the photons blasting their protons and neutrons apart, undoing twenty million years’.
On the blue-white globe of the captive planet, a storm appeared to be growing with manic rapidity across the peninsula which included the target area, obliterating one by one the violently radiating patches of thermal radiation where !
Both fields supplement each other in that the thermal radiation forms the radii which belong to the circular magnetic lines-of-force surrounding the conductor.
Another black box, and its associated antennae and sensors, was capable of receiving thermal radiation and determining the location of the source of the radiation, its strength, and its frequency.
Another black box electronically compared this data against known data, such as the known radiation patterns of various thermal radiation sources, and determined with remarkable accuracy whether the source of the thermal radiation was, for example, the exhaust of a truck, a campfire, or a thermite match.
Finally, an cation of other black box assembled all the data, the lo airplane the sources of thermal radiation, and its probable cause, and caused the on-board printing device to print a map on which was located the location of the airerafi and the sources of the radiation There were little symbols identifying the .
You may need to dig to reach the airlock, though I suspect thermal radiation from the cabin will keep the upper parts of the structure free.
Despite the shields' best efforts, the weapon emplacements were huge, raw wounds, and the entire valley floor was a sea of blazing grass and trees, touched to flame by thermal radiation.
The thermal radiation indicates a low level of operation-either that or it's been shut down only recently -but I believe it's workin' because there's an ingenious heat-exchanging system still at work.
The kind of heat and thermal radiation they will use will melt the very crust of this planet.
That is to say, one hundred percent of them would die from thermal radiation alone.