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Diathermancy (from "dia" through and "thermē" heat) is the property of some fluids that allows rays of light through them without itself being heated. A diathermanous substance is thus "permeable" by heat.[1] Diathermancy was first described by German physicist and chemist Heinrich Gustav Magnus in the 1800s.[2]
Air is diathermanous; therefore atmospheric air is not heated by sunshine. Atmospheric air is heated by long-wave thermal radiation emitted by soil, and especially, by water on the Earth's surface.
Water is not diathermanous, and it is heated directly by sunshine.
- ^ Diathermanous, Fine Dictionary
- ^ Magnus wrote initially four papers on Diathermancy [1]