RNR 1001 Chapter : 7 Greenhouse Effect And Global Warming
Document Summary
The trapping of this long-wavelength radiation also traps heat, which increases temperatures inside the transparent medium. This is what happens to your car in the lsu parking lot, or what happens inside a greenhouse. The same phenomenon works with sunlight passing through the earth"s atmosphere, and the importance of the greenhouse effect to the evolution of life on the planet is unequivocal. Without the greenhouse effect, earth"s temperature would average -18oc (0of), instead of the 60of average we now enjoy, and life on the planet would have been very different indeed. Instead of glass, the planet"s atmosphere contains several gasses that have the unique property of allowing shorter-wave radiation from the sun to pass through, but absorbing, reflecting, or re- radiating long-wave radiation back towards the planet"s surface. As we discussed in class, these gasses include water vapor, carbon dioxide (co2), methane (ch4) and nitrous oxide (n2o).
