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How CO 2 causes the greenhouse effect. Matter emits thermal radiation at a rate that is directly proportional to the fourth power of its temperature. Some of the radiation emitted by the Earth's surface is absorbed by greenhouse gases and clouds. Without this absorption, Earth's surface would have an average temperature of −18 °C (−0.4 °F).
Absorption cross sections for CO2 (green) and water vapour (purple). The wavelengths most relevant to climate change are those where the green plot crosses the upper horizontal line, representing a CO2 level somewhat larger than the current concentration. CO 2 absorbs the ground's thermal radiation mainly at wavelengths between 13 and 17 micron ...
Though water plays a major role in the process, the runaway greenhouse effect is not a result of water vapor feedback. [4] The runaway greenhouse effect can be seen as a limit on a planet's outgoing longwave radiation that, when surpassed, results in a state where water cannot exist in its liquid form (hence, the oceans have all "boiled away"). [3]
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 13 February 2025. Gas in an atmosphere with certain absorption characteristics This article is about the physical properties of greenhouse gases. For how human activities are adding to greenhouse gases, see Greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases trap some of the heat that results when sunlight heats ...
The Global Temperature change Potential (GTP) is another way to compare gases. While GWP estimates infrared thermal radiation absorbed, GTP estimates the resulting rise in average surface temperature of the world, over the next 20, 50 or 100 years, caused by a greenhouse gas, relative to the temperature rise which the same mass of CO 2 would ...
The Planck response is the additional thermal radiation objects emit as they get warmer. Whether Planck response is a climate change feedback depends on the context. In climate science the Planck response can be treated as an intrinsic part of warming that is separate from radiative feedbacks and carbon cycle feedbacks.
The vibrational and rotational excited states of greenhouse gases that emit thermal infrared radiation are in LTE up to about 60 km. [7] Radiative transfer calculations show negligible change (0.2%) due to absorption and emission above about 50 km. Schwarzschild's equation therefore is appropriate for most problems involving thermal infrared in ...
The idealized greenhouse model is based on the fact that certain gases in the Earth's atmosphere, including carbon dioxide and water vapour, are transparent to the high-frequency solar radiation, but are much more opaque to the lower frequency infrared radiation leaving Earth's surface.