Radiative cooling is a natural process by which an object loses heat by emitting infrared radiation. This occurs when the surface of the object absorbs heat from its surroundings or the sun and then emits that energy in the form of thermal radiation. The efficiency of radiative cooling depends on several factors, including the temperature of the object, the ambient temperature, and the object's ability to emit infrared radiation.
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Radiative cooling occurs when emitted thermal radiation removes energy faster than radiation and other processes supply it. For an idealized small grey surface of area and emissivity exchanging with a large uniform radiative enclosure,under the assumptions of the Stefan–Boltzmann law. The temperatures are absolute, and the simple expression assumes the same effective emissivity and full radiative view of the enclosure.
A body can therefore continue cooling in vacuum even when gas convection is absent. Its actual temperature history also depends on heat capacity and any thermal conduction through supports. In an optically thin astrophysical gas, emission by microscopic constituents replaces the opaque-surface model, and the astrophysical cooling function can describe the loss. Choosing the correct emission geometry and absorption assumptions is essential before turning observed radiation into a cooling rate.