So what I’m reading is that these gas absorb the light from the sun and keeps it trapped on the earth.
What I don’t get is how is it letting the light and heat in from the sun in, but not the light and heat reflected from the Earth out? If it’s a barrier, shouldn’t it block both ways? If it’s not a barrier, how is it trapping the heat?
In: 950
Others made a good point about different types of radiation, which is true and a very important aspect of the greenhouse effect.
In addition, it’s also not so much a barrier as a filter or a sieve. If you look at it as a sieve than it isn’t really all that weird that it lets in more than it lets out. Let’s say 80% passes the sieve and 20% is filtered out. In that case 80% of sunlight comes into the earth, passing the sieve once. Going out it passes the sieve again and 20% is filtered out again, so only 64% leaves the earth.
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