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The greenhouse effect speaks of change in the state of equilibrium temperature on a planet or moon due to the presence of a gaseous atmosphere that absorbs and emits infrared radiation (heat).
Greenhouse gases (including water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane) that warm the atmosphere by efficiently absorbing thermal infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface, atmosphere and clouds. As a result of this absorption, the atmosphere also radiates heat in all directions, including downward to the earth's surface.
Greenhouse gases, thus trapping the heat within the surface-troposphere system. This mechanism is different from an actual mechanism of the greenhouse, where isolation of the air inside the structure, which prevents conduction and convection is what warms the internal air .. The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824, with the first reliable experiments conducted by John Tyndall in the year 1858 and reported for the first time, quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896.
In the absence of greenhouse gases and a gaseous atmosphere, the Earth whose surface temperature is 14 ° C (57 ° F) could be as low as -18 ° C (-0.4 ° F).
Anthropogenic global warming, the recent warming of the lower atmosphere, is believed to be the result of an increased greenhouse effect due mainly to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and changes in the uses of soils.
The greenhouse effect is one of several factors that affect the Earth's temperature. Other positive and negative feedback can dampen or amplify the greenhouse effect.
In our solar system on Mars, Venus and the moon Titan, also show varieties in the greenhouse effect according to their respective environments. Indeed Titan shows an anti-greenhouse effect like Pluto.
See Earth's Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases |
