Greenhouse Effect
What are green house gases?
Green house gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. These molecules are transparent to visible light but absorb and re-emit infrared light.
What are the two greenhouse gases that are most responsible for absorbing infrared light in the Earth's atmosphere?
H2O and CO^2
Even though UV photons are more energetic than visible photons, the Sun simply gives off fewer UV photons and gives off way more visible and infrared photons. These longer wavelength photons account for most of the energy coming from the Sun.
I agree because there are more visible and infrared while UV is less often and rarer.
What type of light does the Earth's surface give off at night?
Infrared light due to temperature because the surface is transferring heat to the atmosphere by the greenhouse gas molecules.
What type of light primarily heats the Earths surface and where does it come from?
Infrared light heats Earth's surface and it comes from the Earth's surface by radiation.
Why is UV light not an important energy source for heating the surface of Earth?
It is absorbed into the atmosphere far more than visible and infrared light and very little UV light comes from the sun.
Will the light given off by Earth's surface easily travel back through the atmosphere to space or will it be absorbed by molecules in the atmosphere?
It should be absorbed because of the wavelengths.
Due to the light absorbed by Earth's surface that was emitted by Earth's atmosphere, is Earth's temperature near the surface going to be warmer or cooler than it would be without this absorbed light?
It should be warmer.
Is more energy absorbed by Earth's surface in the form of light coming from the Sun or from light emitted by Earth's atmosphere?
More energy is absorbed by Earth's surface from light emitted from the atmosphere
What type of light does the Earth's surface primarily give off?
The Earth's surface primarily gives off infrared light because the Earths surface must peak at wavelengths that are longer than visible.
How does the total amount of energy coming from the Sun compare to the total amount of energy leaving the Earth to space?
The amount of incoming energy from the Sun must be equal to the amount going out.
What gas molecules are primarily responsible for absorption of UV, visible, and infrared light in our atmosphere?
UV- 0^2 (oxygen) and O^3 (ozone) Visible- None Infrared- H2O (water) and CO^2 (carbon dioxide)
Which two forms of light account for the majority of energy coming from the sun?
Visible and infrared. Ultra violet accounts for the least energy because its 7%.
Comparing visible and the infrared types of light- which has an easier time getting through the atmosphere? Which has more absorption?
Visible light has an easier time getting through the atmosphere because it isn't absorbed like infrared light.
What type of light primarily heats the Earth's atmosphere and where does it come from?
Visible light heats Earth's atmosphere and it comes from the sunlight.
