Surface Heat Capacity

The Surface Heat Capacity of an object represents the energy required to raise the temperature of one unit of surface area by one degree. This property is related to the heat capacity of the object's surface material, and determines how fast the surface will heat or cool.

Property Details

Location

For Planetary Body objects, the Surface Heat Capacity property can be found in the Energy Flow section of the Surface tab. For Stars, Black Holes, Fragments, and Human-Scale Objects, the Surface Heat Capacity property can be found in the Temperature tab.

Units

Effective Temperature can be viewed using the following units:

• Megajoules per Kelvin per Meter Squared (MJ/K/m² or MJ/C/m²) = 10⁵ J/K/m²
• Joules per Kelvin per Meter Squared (J/K/m² or J/C/m²) uses the SI unit for energy, temperature, and area

Simulation Effects

Surface Temperature

At each simulation time step, the change in the temperature of each point on the object's surface, ΔT, is calculated using the Energy Absorption Rate, P_abs, the Energy Radiation Rate, P_rad, the time step, Δt, and the object's Surface Heat Capacity, C, using

$\Delta T = (P_{abs} - P_{rad})\Delta T / C.$