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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.
The episode also examines the planet Venus to inspect the runaway greenhouse effect. [2] The episode's title alludes to H. G. Wells ' novel published in 1914, The World Set Free , where Wells predicts that humanity will develop destructive nuclear weapons , perpetuating a devastating global war and forcing the world to come to its senses to ...
The greenhouse effect occurs when greenhouse gases in a planet's atmosphere insulate the planet from losing heat to space, raising its surface temperature. Surface heating can happen from an internal heat source (as in the case of Jupiter ) or come from an external source, such as its host star .
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 24 January 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 ...
Earth constantly absorbs energy from sunlight and emits thermal radiation as infrared light. In the long run, Earth radiates the same amount of energy per second as it absorbs, because the amount of thermal radiation emitted depends upon temperature: If Earth absorbs more energy per second than it radiates, Earth heats up and the thermal radiation will increase, until balance is restored; if ...
The warming from the greenhouse effect has a logarithmic relationship with the concentration of greenhouse gases. This means that every additional fraction of CO 2 and the other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has a slightly smaller warming effect than the fractions before it as the total concentration increases.
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]
The greenhouse effect is visible as the area of the upper red area, and the greenhouse effect associated with CO 2 is directly visible as the large dip near the center of the OLR spectrum. [26] The reduction of the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), relative to longwave radiation emitted by the surface, is at the heart of the greenhouse effect ...