The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's temperature when the body's emissivity curve (as a function of wavelength) is not known.
When the star's or planet's net emissivity in the relevant wavelength band is less than unity (less that that of a black body), the actual temperature of the body will be higher than the effective temperature. The net emissivity may be low due to surface or atmospheric properties, including greenhouse effect.
Famous quotes containing the words effective and/or temperature:
“Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice.... It indicates better than any water hereabouts the absolute progress of the season, being least affected by transient changes of temperature. A severe cold of a few days’ duration in March may very much retard the opening of the former ponds, while the temperature of Walden increases almost uninterruptedly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)