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Chapter 3.1 Greenhouse effect

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8 views

Chapter 3.1 Greenhouse effect

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adamumulatu3
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Greenhouse Effect


The Earth’s surface receives energy
from two sources: the sun & the
atmosphere
As a result the Earth’s surface is
~33C warmer than it would be
without an atmosphere

 Greenhouse gases are transparent to


shortwave but absorb long wave
radiation (see next slide)
Thus the atmosphere stores energy
Electromagnetic Spectrum
incoming outgoing
 The main source of heat to the Earth is
solar energy

 To balance this input of solar radiation,


the Earth itself emits radiation to space

 Some of this terrestrial radiation is


trapped by greenhouse gases and radiated
back to the Earth, resulting in the warming
of the surface known as the greenhouse
effect
The sun sends out
energy as heat and
light. This energy
comes to our earth
during the day time.

 Some of the sun’s rays


get ‘trapped’ in the
atmosphere.
 Some of them get
reflected back into space.
 The ones which get
All the time, the
earth radiates heat
into space, which
cools it down. We
only really notice
this at night, when
there is no heating
from the sun.

 Some of the heat


going out is trapped by
the atmosphere. This is
what makes our planet
warm enough to live on.
 But if too much heat is
trapped, our planet will
warm up and the climate
What is the atmosphere and why
 does itis trap
The atmosphere heat?
the air
around the surface of the
earth
 It is made from a mixture of
gases
 We need it for the life to
survive
 Some of the gases act like a
blanket, trapping heat
 These gases are called
‘greenhouse gases’
 This is known as the ‘Natural
Greenhouse Effect’
So why is global warming
happening?
 Human activities are
increasing the amounts of the
greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, so more heat is
trapped

 The heating of the earth


through human activities is
called the ‘Enhanced Greenhouse
Effect’ and this is causing the
earth to heat up, or global
warming
Natural Atmosphere Enhanced
Greenhous has more Greenhouse
greenhouse
e effect gases
effect
Heat radiates Heat radiates
from the earth from the earth

Some heat Less heat


goes out to goes out
space to space

Atmosphere traps
Atmosphere traps
some heat
more heat

Quite a lot of More heat is


heat is trapped trapped and
and the earth is causes
warm enough global
Which gases in the atmosphere
 The atmosphere trap heat?
is made of 78% Nitrogen and
21% Oxygen
 But these gases don’t trap heat and cause
global warming or climate change

 What % of the atmosphere is left?


The gases which trap heat
make up less than 1% of the
atmosphere! They are called
the ‘greenhouse gases’

The main greenhouse gases Human


are: activity
Carbon dioxide
Methane increases
Nitrous oxide the amount
Ozone of these
How do humans increase GHG levels in the
atmosphere?
Burning fossil fuels
releases the CO2
stored millions of
years ago. Most of the
increased CO2 comes
from fossil fuels

Deforestation releases
the carbon stored in
trees. Less trees also
means less CO2 can be
removed from the
How do humans increase CH4 levels in the
atmosphere?
Increased rice growing
Methane is produced when
bacteria rot organic matter

Increased
Increased livestock farming rubbish in
landfill

Methane is also
released when The amount of
fossil fuels are methane in the
extracted atmosphere has
increased by two and
a half times since the
 Since 18th C, there has been much concern
that anthropogenic activities increases in
greenhouse gases could be inducing rapid
surface warming of the Earth

 The naturally occurring greenhouse gases CO 2,


CH4, and N2O show large increases over the
past century due to human activities (Fig on
the next slide)
Rise in the concentrations of greenhouse gases since

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