Essay On Greenhouse Effect

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. INTRODUCTION 1.1. What is the Greenhouse Effect? The Earth’s climate is determined by the receipt and distribution of the radiation received from the sun (Dunne, 2013). Light from the sun undertakes three corridors: 25% is absorbed by the atmosphere, 30% is reflected back into space and 45% is absorbed by the Earth’s surface (Dunne, 2013). The light absorbed by the Earth’s surface is converted into energy and used for the various biological processes. In the atmosphere, some gases have strong infrared radiation absorption ability and are able to absorb the infrared emitted by the Earth’s surface, and re-emit this infrared to the Earth’s surface, thus warming the Earth’s surface more than it otherwise would be (Botkin & Keller, 2014). These gases are referred to as greenhouse gases and this warming of the Earth’s surface is referred to as “The Greenhouse Effect”. Figure 1 below presents an illustration of this greenhouse effect. The greenhouse gases cause heat to become trapped between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface, similar to how air is trapped in a…show more content…
One is found in the stratosphere of the Earth’s atmosphere and its purpose is to protect the Earth’s surface from the harmful radiation of the sun and to control the Earth’s temperature by absorbing the incoming solar ultraviolet radiation and the outgoing terrestrial (longwave) radiation (IPCC, 1990); this is referred to as stratospheric ozone. Stratospheric O3 controls the Earth’s temperature in two ways: the longwave radiation is re-emitted to the Earth’s surface causing an increase in temperature and, when less solar and longwave radiation is absorbed, the temperature decreases (IPCC, 1990). The other type of O3 is tropospheric ozone. Tropospheric O3 is transferred down from the stratosphere to the troposphere where it acts as a greenhouse gas (IPCC, 1990). O3 in the troposphere is also formed through a series of reactions between CO2, CH4, NMHC and NOx (IPCC,
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