Settled science?: "Part of the problem is that nobody understands how nanoparticles absorb and emit heat"

Aerosols, Climate Change and The Dramatic Failure of Planck's Law - Technology Review

The effect of aerosols on the Earth's climate is hugely important but mind-bogglingly complex. In addition to cooling the Earth, some aerosols, such as soot, tend to absorb sunlight and so heat up the atmosphere.

A huge outstanding question in climate science is how these processes of heat absorption and reflection balance out.

Part of the problem is that nobody understands how nanoparticles absorb and emit heat. In theory, this process is governed by Planck's law, which describes the amount of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a perfect black body at a given temperature.