You are on page 1of 11

The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere

(water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earths average temperature would be about 60F colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases. Have you ever seen a greenhouse? Most greenhouses look like a small glass house. Greenhouses are used to grow plants, especially in the winter. Greenhouses work by trapping heat from the sun. The glass panels of the greenhouse let in light but keep heat from escaping. This causes the greenhouse to heat up, much like the inside of a car parked in sunlight, and keeps the plants warm enough to live in the winter. The Earths atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlights energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up.

(D) The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals. http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/greenhouse.html

Greenhouse Effect The greenhouse effect refers to circumstances where the short wavelengths of visible light from the sun pass through a transparent medium and are absorbed, but the longer wavelengths of the infrared re-radiation from the heated objects are unable to pass through that medium. The trapping of the long wavelength radiation leads to more heating and a higher resultant temperature. Besides the heating of an automobile by sunlight through the windshield and the namesake example of heating the greenhouse by sunlight passing through sealed, transparent windows, the greenhouse effect has been widely used to describe the trapping of excess heat by the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide strongly absorbs infrared and does not allow as much of it to escape into space. Sunlight warms your car Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide Global warming Role in the absence of water on Venus? Index

A major part of the efficiency of the heating of an actual greenhouse is the trapping of the air so that the energy is not lost by convection. Keeping the hot air from escaping out the top is part of the practical "greenhouse effect", but it is common usage to refer to the infrared trapping as the "greenhouse effect" in atmospheric applications where the air trapping is not applicable. HyperPhysics***** Thermodynamics R Nave Go Back

Greenhouse Effect Example Bright sunlight will effectively warm your car on a cold, clear day by the greenhouse effect. The longer infrared wavelengths radiated by sun-warmed objects do not pass readily through the glass. The entrapment of this energy warms the interior of the vehicle. The trapping of the hot air so that it cannot rise and lose the energy by convection also plays a major role.

Short wavelengths of visible light are readily transmitted through the transparent windshield. (Otherwise you wouldn't be able to see through it!)

Index Blackbody radiation concepts

Shorter wavelengths of ultraviolet light are largely blocked by glass since they have greater quantum energies which have absorption mechanisms in the glass. Even though you may be uncomfortably warm with bright sunlight streaming through, you will not be sunburned. Go Back

Increase in Greenhouse Gases The increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide, one of the three major atmospheric contributers to the greenhouse effect has been carefully documented at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The 1990 rate of increase was about 0.4% per year. The interesting cyclic variations represent the reduction in carbon dioxide by photosynthesis during the growing season in the northern hemisphere. Current analysis suggests that the combustion of fossil fuels is a major contributer to the increase in the carbon dioxide concentration, such contributions being 2 to 5 times the effect of deforestation (Kraushaar & Ristinen). Increase in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Index References Kraushaar & Ristinen Trefil

The Mauna Loa monitoring station reports the carbon These are dioxide level in the atmosphere today as about 380 parts sketches of the per million compared to 315 ppm in 1958 when modern graphs produced measurements were initiated. Measurements of air bubbles in the IPCC 2007 trapped in the Greenland ice sheet indicate concentrations report of the of 270 ppm in preindustrial times. increase in key greenhouse gases. They make clear that

most of the increase of the last thousand years has occurred in the past 200 years. The radiative forcing of these gases is related to their concentration .

Go Back

Contributers to Greenhouse Effect Those gas molecules in the Earth's atmosphere with three or more atoms are called "greenhouse gases" because they can capture outgoing infrared energy from the Earth, thereby warming the planet. The greenhouse gases include water vapor with three atoms (H2O), ozone (O3), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4). Also, trace quantities of chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFC's) can have a disproportionately large effect.

To attempt to quantify the effects of greenhouse gases on the global temperature, climatologists use the "radiative forcing" of the current atmospheric content of these gases. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/grnhse.html The Greenhouse Effect Earth's atmosphere acts like a greenhouse, warming our planet in much the same way that an ordinary greenhouse warms the air inside its glass walls. Like glass, the gases in the atmosphere let in light yet prevent heat from escaping. This natural warming of the planet is called the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and others -- are transparent to certain wavelengths of the Sun's radiant energy, allowing them to penetrate deep into the atmosphere or all the way to Earth's surface. Clouds, ice caps, and particles in the air reflect about 30 percent of this radiation, but oceans and land masses absorb the rest, then release it back toward space as infrared radiation. The greenhouse gases and clouds effectively prevent some of the infrared radiation from escaping; they trap the heat near Earth's surface where it warms the lower atmosphere. If this natural barrier of atmospheric gases were not present, the heat would escape into space, and Earth's mean global temperatures could be as much as 33 degrees Celsius cooler [about -18 degrees Celsius as opposed to 15 degrees Celsius]. The greenhouse effect is important to life on Earth, without it the Earth would be far too cold for us. But some scientists are concerned that humans are producing too many greenhouse gases, and that we may be warming the Earth too much. The first step to a safe future is to be aware of the possible problems. Next we must study climate and atmospheric trends, which will take many years of observation. NASA is very involved in these studies, measuring greenhouse

gases in the atmosphere from satellites in space. As we develop a deeper understanding of climate trends, we can better predict what affects we have on our environment, and how to ensure a healthy future. http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/greenhouse.html The Greenhouse Effect The Greenhouse Effect is commonly mentioned in the context of Global Warming, that is, the observation that the northern hemisphere has warmed by more than 1F over the last 100 years, and that the decades of the 1980s and 1990s have been the warmest on record, as far as can be ascertained, for the last 1000 years. What is at issue when discussing global warming, however, is not the Greenhouse Effect by itself, but an additional Greenhouse Effect, in excess of the one that Earth has naturally. The Excess Greenhouse Effect is produced by the release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, from human economic activities. To understand the natural Greenhouse Effect (which makes Earth a pleasant place to live) we have to look at the energy balance between incoming sunlight heating Earth and outgoing heat radiation cooling the planet. The two must balance, since the Earth has stayed at roughly the same temperature for millions of years (as shown by the fact that the fish and corals in the ocean and the trees and insects on land have been around for a very long time). If we were to measure the temperature of the Earth from space, the Earth's effective radiation surface (not the ground surface, but what-is-seen-from-space-in-the-infrared, actually a zone) would show a temperature of roughly 18 degrees Celsius (about 0F). This is the temperature that is appropriate for the requirement that incoming and outgoing energy must balance. At this temperature, our planet radiates a quantity of heat into space that is the same as that amount of sunlight received from the Sun that is converted into heat on the ground and in the atmosphere. How then can we speak of global warming when we have just stated that the Earth (as seen from space) MUST stay at the same temperature? And how is it that the average temperature of the Earths effective radiation surface is only a chilly 0F? How can we get away with wearing T-shirts? The key to understanding this apparent contradiction is to remember that we live at the bottom of the gaseous sea called atmosphere. As far as the Earths radiation balance is concerned, the lower atmosphere and the surface of Earth form part of a warm interior of the planet. In the process of global warming, this interior the lower atmosphere warms up. The relevant surface for re-radiation of heat that we see from space is located well above the real surface of the Earth where we live. The Earths heat radiation zone is centered about 5000 meters up (17,000 feet) within the atmosphere. To

get a better handle on this concept consider the following: the difference in elevation between 0 meters and 5,000 meters corresponds to a difference in temperature of about 60F. In other words, at sea level it is 60F warmer than it would be without the atmosphere. How does global warming affect this picture? We must assume that, upon warming the lower atmosphere, the radiative surface (what-is-seen-from-spacein-the-infrared) moves upward in the atmosphere. The rise can be seen in the changing positions of the snow line (the elevation where snow stays on the ground) and tree line (the elevation where it becomes too cold for trees to grow). However, despite all these changes happening in the lower atmosphere, the overall temperature of the planet as seen from space stays the same. How is it possible that the Earth exactly balances the incoming sunlight with the outgoing heat radiation? The answer is simple: the amount of heat radiation from Earth is precisely tied to the temperature of the atmosphere. If the temperature of the heat radiation surface is too low and Earth radiates too little heat to keep the balance, Earth will warm up and then radiate more heat into space. If the temperature of the heat radiation surface is too high and Earth radiates more heat than it receives, the planet will become colder and consequently radiate less energy back to space. Overall, this ?negative feedback? stabilizes the radiation balance despite all the variations of temperature from one place to another and within the vertical column of the atmosphere. It sets the temperature so that the incoming and outgoing energy is balanced.

We can get another idea about what the temperature on Earth would be like without a greenhouse atmosphere by contemplating the Moon. The Earths satellite has no atmosphere because its gravitational force is not strong enough to retain gas for long. It has the same distance from the Sun as the Earth, but its temperature varies enormously: where the Sun is shining, the Moons temperature rises to 230F and where it is dark falls to negative 290F. The average surface temperature of the moon is also near 0F. By contrast, the average surface temperature of the Earth is 60F at sea level. On Earth, the contrast between maximum and minimum temperatures would not be as great as on the Moon, even without an atmosphere, because the Earth rotates once in a day, while the Moon only rotates once in a month. However,

Figure demonstrating the importance of greenhouse gases in regulating the temperature of the lower atmosphere. The top diagram shows a greenhouse Earth (the real Earth) where the blackbody (radiative) ?surface? lies 5000m up in the atmosphere from the land surface. In the past 100 years this ?surface? has been rising. The lower diagram shows what the Earth would look like without a greenhouse effect, with 0F at the ground.

without an atmosphere the Earths contrast between day and night and the contrast between summer and winter would be very large indeed. Not all the gases in the atmosphere are equally active in keeping Earth warm. In fact, the atmospheres most abundant gas, molecular nitrogen, does very little in this regard, and the same is true for the second most abundant gas, molecular oxygen. The most important ingredient of the air for producing the greenhouse effect is water vapor. However, its abundance depends on the air's temperature. The warmer the air, the more water vapor it can hold. (As air cools, the vapor condenses into rain or snow.) It is carbon dioxide which moves the air toward higher temperature, so that water vapor can take over and warm it some more. Carbon dioxide molecules intercept infrared radiation, warming the air, which increases water vapor through evaporation from the sea surface and from plants and soil moisture. Water vapor then increases the temperature even more. The process is checked by a rise in infrared radiation to space and by formation of clouds. Unfortunately, the role of clouds in the radiation balance is as yet poorly understood. Different types of clouds have different effects, and this makes the calculations complicated and the results uncertain. Clouds reflect sunlight, reducing the incoming energy that can be converted to heat. (On a hot summer day, when clouds start covering the sky, we feel relief from the shading.) Clouds also intercept heat radiation from the Earths surface and atmosphere, and radiate heat back down, warming the surface. (A cloudy night in the desert is much warmer than one with a starry sky.) Which of these processes reflection of sunlight or trapping of outgoing heat dominates in a given situation depends on circumstances and on cloud properties. The uncertainties surrounding the role of clouds prevent a precise calculation of the effects of the excess Greenhouse Effect (from release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) on the temperature of the lower atmosphere. From the fact that the natural Greenhouse Effect keeps us nice and warm, we know that the Greenhouse Effect works. Thus, we know that global warming is inevitable when greenhouse gases are added to the atmosphere. Estimates of overall warming from a doubling of carbon dioxide fall largely within the range of between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius (roughly 3 to 8F), although values outside this range also have been suggested. http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/globalchange/greenhouse_effect/01.html What is the greenhouse effect? There are two meanings of the term "greenhouse effect". There is a "natural" greenhouse effect that keeps the Earth's climate warm and habitable. There is also the "man-made" greenhouse effect, which is the enhancement of Earth's natural greenhouse effect by the addition of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels (mainly petroleum, coal, and natural gas). In order to

understand how the greenhouse effect operates, we need to first understand "infrared radiation". Greenhouse gases trap some of the infrared radiation that escapes from the Earth, making the Earth warmer that it would otherwise be. You can think of greenhouse gases as sort of a "blanket" for infrared radiation-- it keeps the lower layers of the atmosphere warmer, and the upper layers colder, than if the greenhouse gases were not there. About 80-90% of the Earth's natural greenhouse effect is due to water vapor, a strong greenhouse gas. The remainder is due to carbon dioxide, methane, and a few other minor gases. It is the carbon dioxide concentration that is increasing, due to the burning of fossil fuels (as well as from some rainforest burning). This is the man-made portion of the greenhouse effect, and it is believed by many scientists to be responsible for the global warming of the last 150 years. Also, the concentration of methane, although small, has also increased in recent decades. The reasons for this increase, though, are uncertain. http://www.weatherquestions.com/What_is_the_greenhouse_effect.htm

You might also like