What are green house gases?

Answer 1

A greenhouse gas is an atmospheric gas that absorbs and retains energy from infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases must have at least three atoms, to vibrate and turn the radiation into heat.

Energy from the sun heats the earth's surface and atmosphere, which drives the earth's weather and climate. The earth's surface radiates some of this solar energy back into space. Certain atmospheric gases are called greenhouse gases (GHGs) because they help trap some of the outgoing energy, retaining heat somewhat like the glass panels of a greenhouse.

Water Vapor is the primary greenhouse gas and makes up about 75 to 80 percent of all warming.

Carbon Dioxide is the second most common and makes up about 5 to 25% of the warming. Man is a contributor to this gas.

Other gases include virtually all gases with three or more molecules in them.
Some examples of the gases are:-

• Most carbon oxides like carbon dioxide
• Hydrocarbons like methane
• Water Vapor is, by far, the most common (90%)

These gases are present in the atmosphere and the reflect the terrestrial radiation emitted by the Earth at night. They help in maintaining warm temperature and their absence can cause severe temperature drop resulting in unsuitable conditions for life to survive. But too much of it can cause global warming.

When you get down to the actual factors. A gas that is considered a greenhouse gas is any gas that has three or more atoms in each molecule. Oxygen has two molecules and therefore does not have the mass to hold energy, while O3 (Ozone) has three and can hold more energy.