Unit II

Green House Gases

Earths Atmosphere

Radiation
Radiation - A process in which energetic particles or waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing.

conduction
In heat transfer, conduction (or heat conduction) is the transfer of thermal energy between neighboring molecules in a substance due to a temperature gradient. It always takes place from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature, and acts to equalize the temperature differences.

Convection
Convection is the movement of molecules within fluids (i.e. liquids, gases). It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids.

Carbon dioxide chemistry

Carbon dioxide consists of 2 oxygen atoms double bonded to a carbon atom (CO2) and makes up 0.037 percent of the earths atmosphere.

Sources
Natural sources
Respiration Volcanic eruption and biomass burning

Anthropogenic sources
Land use change Transport Industry Biomass burning Energy related emission

Sinks
Terrestrial vegetation Oceans Soil Geological sink Artificial sink

CO2 Cycle

Radiative forcing of Green House Gases

Radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter.

Countries with the highest CO2 Emission

Countries with the highest CO2 emissions

Carbon dioxide emissions Country per year (106 Tons) (2006) Percentage of global total

Avg. emission per km2 of its land (tons)

China United States Russia India Japan Germany United Kingdom Canada South Korea Italy

6,103 5,752 1,564 1,510 1,293 805 568 544 475 474

21.5% 20.2% 5.5% 5.3% 4.6% 2.8% 2.0% 1.9% 1.7% 1.7%

636 597 91 459 3421 2254 2338 54 4758 1573

Countries with the highest per capita CO2 emissions

Country

Carbon dioxide emissions per year (Tons per person) (2006)

Qatar

56.2

United Arab Emirates

32.8

Kuwait

31.2

Bahrain

28.8

Trinidad and Tobago

25.3

Luxembourg

24.5

Netherlands Antilles

22.8

Aruba

22.3

United States

19

Australia

18.1