Bose-Einstein condensation of phonons in atmospheric radiative transfer

Summary form only given. The inadequacy of conventional molecular models in accounting for observations of real atmospheric radiative transfer in the infrared and millimetre wavelength regions has been discussed several times in earlier Conferences of this series. Explanations of why this happens were however generally unsatisfactory until the relevance of Frohlich´s insights about the behaviour of pumped phonons in biosystems was recognized. New laboratory work in the X band microwave region will be described which gives strong support to the Frohlich concept by showing how a threshold of power level must be exceeded for the condensation mechanism to be effective. In some of these researches the pump power is exclusively in the microwave region. It is at first surprising that its atmospheric effects have not previously been recognized in a wavelength region which has been so intensively studied. The principal reason is that pumping gives rise to sharp lines from maser action which could easily be missed unless they were specifically being sought. There are also complications from long relaxation lines and saturation effects.