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
All forms of light come in, not just infrared When the other light is absorbed it is given off at a later time as infrared light, it’s this excess infrared light that gets reflected back. When the light is absorbed depending on its energy will give back more than 1 ray of infrared for every ray of light of a higher energy.
Heat isn’t reflected back to earth in the greenhouse effect. Heat stays trapped because certain gasses hold onto heat much more effectively. This is why people buy pizza stones to put in their ovens to help regulate the heat. When you open an oven door, the heat rushes out, but if you have a pizza stone in there, the stone has absorbed much of the energy and slowly releases it back into the oven.
Latest Answers