Want this question answered?
Yes. The infrared radiation from the surface of the earth is captured by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This causes the greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse gases are very light but they change how sunlight is reflected back out into space in that greenhouse gases do not allow as much sunlight to be reflected. This increases the amount of energy held within the atmosphere and warms the planet
Greenhouse gases don't "warm the atmosphere". What they do is trap heat.Why is because that's the definition of "greenhouse gas". Okay, a little more detail: they're transparent to high frequency radiation (visible light and UV) but largely opaque to lower frequency radiation (like IR). So energy in the form of visible light gets to the surface just fine, but when it's time to reradiate it as heat, greenhouse gases block the emission of the lower frequency IR "heat" radiation.
Those gasses that allow the passage of shorter wavelength energy such as light but reflect or absorb longer wavelength energy such as heat. The main such gasses in our atmosphere are water vapour and carbon dioxide.
Think about all of the emissions/gases we pollute our earth with. These gases are called greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases damage different types of layers of our atmopshere (which include troposphere, startosphere, ozone layer, mesophere, and themosphere).
Greenhouse gases absorb the infrared rays. These are heat rays of the sun.
Greenhouse gases are not really found in a layer. Greenhouse gases are generally distributed, with the only exception of ozone itself. A greenhouse gas is any gas that is comprised of three or more atoms. Common in our atmosphere are: water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and a few more at very low levels. Greenhouse gases work by letting energetic light pass (say from the Sun), then not allowing infrared through without absorbing and scattering it.
Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide or methane in the atmosphereSunlight radiating back from the earth towards spaceThe greenhouse gases catching some of this light and turning it into heat
Greenhouse gases (water, carbon dioxide and methane, mostly) allow light to enter the earth's atmosphere. It comes in as solar radiation and about half of it is absorbed by the earth's surface. This radiation is converted to heat energy, which in turn, radiates infrared (longwave) radiation back out into space. Much of this infrared radiation is captured by the greenhouse gases in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere). The warmed greenhouse gases then heat the air around them, and re-radiate the heat back down to earth, contributing to the greenhouse effect.
The so-called "greenhouse gases" CO2, methane, water vapor, etc.
The term scientists use to describe the gases that have built up in the atmosphere resulting in a change of climate on the earth is Greenhouse effect. These greenhouse gases let light in, but don't let heat escape.
The term scientists use to describe the gases that have built up in the atmosphere resulting in a change of climate on the earth is Greenhouse effect. These greenhouse gases let light in, but don't let heat escape.