Carbon dioxide is heavier then air how can it be a greenhouse gas?

Answer 1

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) does not form a lower layer because it mixes easily with the other gases in the atmosphere, even though it is heavier than air.

You may be getting the gases confused though. All carbon dioxide, except aircraft exhaust and bird expiration is formed in the lower atmosphere. Carbon dioxide normally stays in the lower atmosphere also. If not, the gas would build up fairly quickly. Billions of tons of carbon dioxide are removed very year by the oceans and our planet life when it comes in contact with them. If we did not have this contact, they would be unable to remove the carbon dioxide from the air. Ozone on the other hand is formed high in the atmosphere when sunlight hits oxygen. This gas is found mainly at higher altitudes.

Answer 2

Even though Carbon - di - oxide is heavier than oxygen and nitrogen, there is only about 0 . 038 percentage of it while there is almost 21 percentage of oxygen and 78 percentage of nitrogen. Hence, as the concentration of nitrogen and oxygen is more than CO2 in the atmosphere, CO2 forms a higher layer than oxygen and nitrogen

Answer 3

Although carbon dioxide is denser than air, it is still able to exist in the Earth's atmosphere due to factors like wind and atmospheric mixing. Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, trap heat in the atmosphere by allowing sunlight to enter but preventing some of the heat from escaping back into space, leading to the greenhouse effect.

Answer 4

Gases mix when in contact, they do not separate. If they did the atmosphere of the Earth would be in layers - carbon dioxide, argon, oxygen, nitrogen - as the gas specific gravity decreases.