Planet Temperature Calculator

Our planet’s temperature is influenced by a number of factors, such as the radiative power of the Sun, our distance from the star, the Earth’s reflectivity and greenhouse gas concentration. Some of these are mostly constant, while others vary quite a lot.

Planet Temperature Calculator is a simple program that lets you calculate the effective and surface temperature of a planet using an available set of parameters. It isn’t a particularly advanced piece of software, but it can help you understand various concepts or just sate your curiosity.

Most of the values you need to enter are relative to the conditions found in our solar system. For example, a star mass value of 1 indicates that the star has the same mass as the Sun. The same goes for the planet to star distance and greenhouse column density.

You will also need to provide the albedo, which is the percentage of radiation that is reflected back into space. After clicking Calculate, you will be shown the planet’s effective temperature (without the effects of greenhouse gasses or tidal heating), as well as the actual surface temperature.

The effects of moving the star or changing its mass are as expected, so we won’t go into them. The albedo is interesting to work with, as it shows how much a slight decrease in reflectivity can increase surface temperature, which is what our planet is experiencing at the moment.

You can also play around with the greenhouse gas concentration, but it would have been great if it were possible to customize the abundance of specific types of gasses in the atmosphere.

Planet Temperature Calculator is a useful tool, but it is a pretty basic application. It would be great if more customization options were available and if presets were included for certain planets in our solar system. Also, the UI is far from impressive.