For example, what is the reason why greenhouse gases reflect heat from the Earth back to Earth, but not heat from the Sun back to the space?
From what I understand, it has something to do with radiation and emitted waves, but what exactly makes the difference?
In: Planetary Science
Water, methane, CO2 and other GHGs (HFCs etc.) absorb infrared radiation and then re-emit it (you can tell this from looking at IR spectra of organic compounds).
The radiation from the Sun is a broad spectrum of wavelengths/frequencies so while it does contain infrared, there’s a lot more besides.
Earth absorbs a certain percentage of this radiation (based on the albedo of the location) and then re-emits it BUT it re-emits pretty much all of it as infra-red, which the gases can trap.
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