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
Heat radiation have different frequencies depending on the temperature. The ambient temperature on Earth means that the heat radiation is infrared. If you heat thing up they will start glowing red from their heat radiation. The Sun is so hot that it is glowing white and a lot of the heat radiation is even into the ultraviolet range.
The greenhouse effect happens when things are transparent to the higher frequencies, like yellow, blue and ultraviolet, but absorb or reflect lower frequencies like red and infrared. This means that the heat radiation will only go from the hot to the cold, not the other way around.
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