The Greenhouse Effect

Take away ideas and understandings

• Emitted hear is very sensitive to small changes in temperature.

• Hot objects (e.g., Sun) radiate more, and radiate at shorter wavelengths than cool objects (e.g., Earth).

• Balance between fluxes of absorbed sunlight and emitted heat determine temperature of the planet.

• Trace gases are good absorbers of long wavelength radiation emitted by Earth, but generally poor absorbers of short wavelength radiation emitted by Sun.

• Surface temperature is warmer than planetary temperature because surface needs to balance incoming sunlight plus downward radiation of atmosphere.

Link to detailed lecture notes