how do greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere?
In: Physics
Greenhouse gases absorb infrared light, increase in temperature, and then re-emit that infrared light in a random direction. Some of that re-emitted infrared light will head back towards earths surface. This is an even bigger problem than at first glance though, because not all the light earth absorbs is from infrared, but a good deal of the light that it radiates out is. This means that a full spectrum of light will pass through earths atmosphere, get absorbed by the earth and radiated back out as infrared light. Some of which will then be absorbed again by greenhouse gases and be Re-emitted back towards earth.
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