The Earth’s climate is influenced by the balance between the radiation it receives from space and the radiation reflected back out to space. Many greenhouse gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone, absorb solar radiation, significantly affecting the amount of energy in the Earth system. The greenhouse effect works by absorbing solar energy at Earth’s surface and radiating it back into the atmosphere as heat. As the heat makes its way through the atmosphere and back out to space, greenhouse gases are formed.
Solar radiation enters the atmosphere mainly as light, which is absorbed by the Earth’s surface and converted into heat that is re-radiated into the atmosphere. The levels of solar radiation change, as do the amount of material the Sun ejects into space and the size and number of sunspots and solar flares. The radiation emitted from greenhouse gases back into space is equal to the radiation from the sun, but near the surface there is a difference.
The greenhouse effect is controlled by the balance between absorbed solar radiation and outgoing terrestrial radiation. Greenhouse gases directly permeate most of the short wave rays coming directly from the sun, but they trap most of the long wave rays that are radiated back to the atmosphere after the warming of the Earth. Greenhouse gases primarily absorb infrared light but are largely transparent to shorter wavelength, visible, and near-infrared light.
The greenhouse effect traps radiation from the sun and warms the planet’s surface. Synthetic greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are long-lasting and efficiently absorb solar radiation. While solar radiation management aims to reduce the severity of climate impacts, it does not address the source of the greenhouse effect.
📹 NASA: Why does the Sun Matter for Earth’s Energy Budget?
Earth’s energy budget is a metaphor for the delicate equilibrium between energy received from the Sun versus energy radiated …
What gas blocks UV radiation?
Ozone, a type of ozone found in the stratosphere, plays an essential role in safeguarding Earth’s biosphere from the detrimental effects of ultraviolet radiation.
Does the greenhouse effect reflect sunlight?
About 30% of the Sun’s energy is reflected back into space, while the rest is absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases absorb heat energy from Earth’s surface and hold some of the heat energy. This process has been occurring for billions of years, but human activity, such as burning fossil fuels for energy, has disrupted the balance of greenhouse gases. The more greenhouse gases we release, the more heat they absorb, leading to climate change, which is the warming of Earth.
How does solar radiation work in a greenhouse?
Glass greenhouses are transparent to most solar and thermal infrared radiation wavelengths, but are opaque to longer wavelengths emitted by plants and soil inside the greenhouse. Solar radiation can enter the greenhouse, absorbing and heating the contents, but longer wavelengths cannot escape through the glass. Polyethylene greenhouses, on the other hand, work just as well and are nearly as translucent to thermal infrared radiation as glass ones.
The ground absorbs radiation from the sun and heats up, causing the air next to the earth to warm and expand, becoming less dense than the air higher up. The lighter air rises, allowing cooler and denser air to take its place at the surface and absorb more heat from the warmed ground. The radiation absorbed by the ground goes into heating a deepening layer of air.
In a greenhouse, this mixing is confined to the layer of air trapped under the roof, resulting in a much smaller mass to be heated. This is why ventilation is crucial in keeping a greenhouse from overheating. A closed car in the sun heats up due to the same mechanism. Overall, greenhouses work by absorbing and absorbing radiation from the sun, allowing for efficient heating and cooling.
Do greenhouse gases absorb radiation from the atmosphere?
The atmosphere is a layer of gas and suspended solids that surrounds Earth, holding the air we breathe, protecting us from outer space, and holding moisture, gases, and tiny particles. It consists of several gases, with nitrogen being the most common, as it dilutes oxygen and prevents rapid burning at the Earth’s surface. Oxygen is essential for respiration and combustion, while argon is used in light bulbs, double-pane windows, and museum objects.
Plants use carbon dioxide to make oxygen and act as a blanket to prevent heat escape into outer space. The atmosphere is the protective bubble in which we live, with nitrogen being the most common dry composition.
Does carbon absorb radiation?
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a significant greenhouse gas with a long lifetime in Earth’s atmosphere, absorbing energy with a 15 μm wavelength. It moves into and out of the atmosphere through four major processes: photosynthesis, respiration, organic decomposition, and combustion. Methane, 30 times stronger than CO2, is 30 times stronger as an absorber of infrared radiation but is present in smaller concentrations and has a short-lived lifespan of approximately 8 years.
Methane is produced when bacteria decompose organic plant and animal matter in wetlands, sewage treatment plants, landfills, and cattle and termite guts. Scientists are concerned about increasing methane concentrations in regions where Arctic and alpine permafrost is thawing and releasing methane as it warms.
How is radiation affected by greenhouse gases?
Greenhouse gases are chemical compounds in the Earth’s atmosphere that absorb infrared radiation from sunlight, causing global warming and climate change. These gases, which can occur naturally or be produced by humans, trap heat in the atmosphere, resulting in a colder Earth that is too cold to support life and would have an average temperature of -2°F instead of the current 57°F. Some gases, like industrial gases, are exclusively human-made.
What does the greenhouse gas layer do to the reflected solar radiation?
The absorption and reflection of sunlight are crucial for the Earth’s energy production. About 71% of sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface and atmosphere, causing molecules to vibrate faster and increasing its temperature. This energy is then re-radiated by the Earth as longwave, infrared radiation, or heat. The more sunlight a surface absorbs, the warmer it gets and the more energy it re-radiates as heat. This heat is then absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases and clouds, warming the atmosphere through the greenhouse effect.
Earth’s surfaces are better at absorbing solar radiation than air, especially dark surfaces. Skin and clothes also absorb solar radiation and convert it to heat. Different surfaces and parts of the atmosphere absorb solar radiation at different rates. Earth’s uneven heating is due to its sphere shape, with more solar radiation being received and absorbed near the equator than at the poles. This temperature difference shapes global atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns.
Earth’s tilt also affects the amount of sunlight received and absorbed by different parts of the Earth at different times of the year, causing seasons. The amount of solar radiation also influences processes in the biosphere, directly affecting plants and other organisms that photosynthesize and are the primary food source in most ecosystems.
What happens to solar energy inside the greenhouse?
Solar radiation on a greenhouse is absorbed by its components, such as cover, humid air, plants, and soil, while the remaining portion is lost to the outside. Understanding these terms is crucial for thermal analysis of greenhouses. ScienceDirect uses cookies and all rights are reserved for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. Open access content is licensed under Creative Commons terms.
Do greenhouse gases block UV radiation?
Ozone is a greenhouse gas, primarily due to its ability to absorb infrared radiation. It is primarily found near the surface and is a powerful greenhouse gas, even in trace amounts. The strataspheric ozone layer, which is opaque to UV and IR rays, has both warming and cooling effects. Although the ozone layer is not a strong heat trapping driver, it is a strong heat trapping gas in the lower atmosphere.
Ozone is reactive and has a short atmospheric lifetime, but it maintains an equilibrium concentration of 337 ppb in the troposphere. Most tropospheric ozone formation occurs when nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds react with sunlight in the atmosphere.
Do greenhouse gases absorb solar radiation?
Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation from the Sun, causing heat to be circulated in the atmosphere and eventually lost to space. They also increase the rate at which the atmosphere can absorb short-wave radiation from the Sun, but this has a weaker effect on global temperatures. The CO2 released from fossil fuel burning accumulates as an insulating blanket around Earth, trapping more Sun’s heat in the atmosphere. Human anthropogenic actions contribute to the enhanced greenhouse effect. The contribution of a greenhouse gas depends on its heat absorption, re-radiation, and presence in the atmosphere.
Why doesn’t CO2 reflect sunlight?
Carbon dioxide serves as a gatekeeper, facilitating the passage of visible light while simultaneously absorbing infrared energy through resonance.
📹 Mechanism of Ozone Formation and Ultraviolet Absorption
This video demonstrates how oxygen gas in the atmosphere becomes ozone and how ozone protects us from ultraviolet radiation.
Create low pressures in atmosphere due to lack of atmosphere. We need more air pressure studies at different atmospheric levels. Hotter days due to sun penetrating more and colder nights due to ambient temperatures of space. Atmosphere is an insulator to regulate earths temperature. Is irrigation helping maintain atmosphere. Fire consumes atmosphere(as shown below)
…just for ‘curiosity sake’ compare the total energy reserve inside the Earth, both infamous ‘dirty’ nuclear uranium and thorium, plus speculative hydrogen/deuterium-fusion, and less-famous ‘clean’ nuclear recessive daughter isotopes and non spontaneous fission isotopes (tungsten and many others are so slow radioactive they were previously deemed stable)….
There you go While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. – Genesis 8:22 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. – Hebrews 1:10-12
Has any of your work been been in a peer-reviewed publication? Are you associated with any universities? I’m afraid you lack the qualifications and evidence to give your theories much credence. The same goes for many of the authors and speakers your reference in your work. The basic reactions shown in this article are backed by centuries of experimental evidence, scientific collaboration and common sense.