Do greenhouse gases absorb incoming heat from the sun or just let it pass by. Where...

Do greenhouse gases absorb incoming heat from the sun or just let it pass by. Where does the incoming light end up. What happens to it when it hits the earth?

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The green house gases occurring naturally in the atmosphere are Water Vapor, Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Ozone. To this, human activities have added Sulphur dioxide from industries ; Nitrogen dioxide from agriculture and Chloro-Fluro Carbons (CFCs) from cooling industries which also act as green house gases.

The radiations from sun include the visible light and invisible ultraviolet and infra-red wavelengths, and heat waves. The radiation coming down to Earth reaches the earth surface unhindered. At the surface level, like any radiation, the different waves are part absorbed by different things and part reflected back into the atmosphere.

The two original green house gases on earth were meant to keep it warm for the life to happen and thrive. The CO2 was near the surface and it trapped heat energy (infra-red) to keep surface warm. The other escaping wavelengths were partly stopped by earth's atmosphere and majorly by the ozone blanket of the earth. The ozone blanket also saved us from the harmful effects of UV radiations. This was necessary for the varied forms of life that roamed the earth. If not for these original provisions in the atmosphere the Earth would have been a cold plant with ice all around and hardly any life.

Now, coming to man made interferences - the chloro-fluoro carbons interfered with ozone layer and the gases added by our activities, retained heat by absorbing and re-emitting infra-red light back to earth surface. This is what constituted the "Greenhouse Effect" and led to global warming.

The global warming has resulted in continuous increase in Earth's temperature leading to warm ocean surfaces, depletion of life in the seas and in the long run is now causing melting of polar ice caps (glaciers) which may lead to increase in sea level and submerging of a huge part of land as we know it.

The different green house gases and their contributions to green house effect is given in the following pie chart:

gladiator answered 2 years ago

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