What do the arrows represent in a diagram of the greenhouse effect?

Answer 1

You'll have to examine the diagram carefully to work out which arrows are which. Here are some of them.

• Solar radiation reaches the earth from the sun.
• A little of this is reflected by clouds back into space.
• A little is absorbed by clouds and the atmosphere.
• Most of it reaches the surface of the earth, which gets warm.
• A little of the radiation reaching the earth's surface is reflected back to space from white and shiny snow and ice. This is the albedo effect.
• The warm earth now emits heat upwards, in the form of infrared radiation.
• A little of this gets right up and escapes into space, lost forever.
• Most of it is absorbed by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases like water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane hold this heat and the molecules become warm.
• This heat in the greenhouse gases moves in all directions, some of it back down to earth where it further warms the surface.

Answer 2

The arrows in a diagram of the greenhouse effect represent the flow of energy from the sun to Earth and back into space. They illustrate how sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, is absorbed by the surface, and then re-emitted as infrared radiation, which is trapped by greenhouse gases and keeps the planet warm.

Answer 3

The arrows show how the factors in the ecosystem are related to each other and how they influence their surroundings.

Answer 4

Where each insect/animal or plant gets its energy from
eg.
rabbit---->hawk
the hawk gets energy from the rabbit