Text Version of The Greenhouse Effect Image
This image shows the relationships between the sun, the atmosphere and the earth.
- Some solar radiation is reflected by the earth and atmosphere.
- Some solar radiation passes through the clear atmosphere.
- Most radiation is absorbed by the earth’s surface and warms the earth.
- Some of the infrared radiation passes through the atmosphere, and some is absorbed and re-emitted in all directions by greenhouse gas molecules. The effect of this is to warm the earth’s surface and lower the atmosphere.
- Infrared radiation is emitted from the earth’s surface.