Greenhouse Effect

The working principle and application

Introduction
Global warming has been a hot topic for quite a long time.
Greenhouse effect, which is a mechanism that keeps the earth
warm, is blamed by some people as the main reason for global
warming. However, what is greenhouse effect? Is greenhouse
effect really such a bad thing? To know the answer, this paper was
written for a better understanding of greenhouse effect.
To start with, a brief understanding of thermal radiation should
be known first. It is because heat energy is transferred by thermal
radiation. Without a understanding of thermal radiation, the
mechanism of greenhouse effect could not be demonstrated clearly.
Then, a brief process of how heat, in the form of sunlight, is
transmitted from the Sun to the earth is shown. When the heat
arrives earth, it is time to know why heat can be trapped by the
atmosphere of earth. A layer model is demonstrated to know more
about this.
Earth Radiation Budget is then followed. This budget is a
project done by NASA throughout the years. Studying this radiation
budget can let us know more about the physical system of how
incoming heat energy balances outgoing heat energy.
After that, it is the time to know what greenhouse gases are.
Lastly, after knowing all the information above, the application
of greenhouse effect is discussed.
Brief ideas of thermal radiation
Thermal radiation is a type of EM radiation. All matters with a
temperature above absolute zero (0 K) emit thermal radiation.
Whenever thermal radiation is emitted and then absorbed, heat is
transferred. Visible light and infrared light are examples of thermal
radiation. Hotter objects emit shorter wavelength wave (Archer,
2012). A very hot object would appear as white, because it also
emits green and blue light other than red light. Thus, the spread of
frequencies in the entire visible range cause the very hot object to
appear white to the human eye.
There is a special type of thermal radiation called blackbody
radiation. A black body is a physical body that absorbs all incident
EM radiation, no matter what the frequency or angle of incidence is
(Siegel et al., 2002). Therefore, blackbody is a perfect absorber for
all incident radiation. Blackbody radiation is the EM radiation
emitted by blackbody at a constant temperature.
There are three characteristics of thermal radiation, namely
transmission , absorption , and reflection (Kaplan, 1993).

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cgibin/virtcdlib/index.cgi/4302870/FID1/html/rsdetail.htm

Transparent body transmits all the incident radiation: =1 and

==0. White body reflects the radiation uniformly in all directions:
=1 and ==0. Blackbody absorbs all radiation: =1 and ==0.
There is also an equation called Stefan-Boltzmann equation
which describes the power radiated from a black body in terms of its
temperature (Archer, 2012):
I = T 4 .
I is the intensity of light, in units of W/ m2 ; is the emissivity
which is a number describing how good a blackbody an object is;
is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant ; T is the temperature in K.
Later, this equation will be used.
Process of heat from sun to earth
The hot plasma of Sun generates a huge amount of energy by a
process called nuclear fusion. The amount of energy is so huge that
the Sun has a very high temperature, which is about 5780K (Sokolik,
2008). Sunlight, which is a type of thermal radiation, is produced as
a result.
The heat generated by Sun is transmitted through the vacuum
to earth in the form of EM wave. As not all waves can transmit
through the vacuum, for example, sound wave is one of the waves
that cannot pass through vacuum.
After travelling through around 150 million km (Sokolik, 2008),
sunlight finally arrives earth. Sunlight in space at the top of earth's
atmosphere is composed of about 50% IR light, 40% visible light and
10% UV light (Qiang, 2003). Next, a layer model is demonstrated to
know how heat is trapped inside earth basically.
The Layer Model
Two models would be explained. First it is the bare-rock model,
which is about how heat is transffered without the atmosphere.
Then it is the layer model, which talks about the situation with the
atmosphere added.
Bare rock model
The intensity of incoming light above the atmosphere is about
1350W/ m2 (Archer, 2012). The reflected percentage of light,

albedo, of earth is about 0.3 (Archer, 2012). In other words,

approximately only 1000 W/ m 2 can actually enter earth.
Let us calculate the temperature of ground.
Energy = area intensity
Energy in = r 2 ( 1 ) I , while r 2 is the area of cross section
of earth, is the albedo of earth and I is the intensity of
incoming light.
sunlight

Earth

The earth acts as a blackbody. After the absorption of sunlight,

the earth emits black body radiation in the form of IR light in all
direction. The IR light emitted has longer wavelength than the IR in
sunlight because the energy is less.
i.e. Energy out = 4 r 2 T 4 , while 4 r 2 is the surface area
of earth , T 4 is the intensity given by the Stefan-Boltzmann
equation.

earth light

Earth

The incoming energy is assumed to be equal to the outgoing

energy in order to solve the temperature of the ground. By solving,
the ground temperature without atmosphere is about 255K or about
-15 (Archer, 2012).
Layer model
With the adding of the atmosphere, this layer model is more
complicated. Let us assume the atmosphere is a glass. Sunlight
passes through the transparent glass and is absorbed by the
ground. After that, the ground radiates longwave IR light out in turn.
As glass acts as a blackbody to IR, the radiation from ground is
absorbed by the glass and is radiated by the glass again, both from
the upper and lower side.

(Archer, 2012)

First, the heat radiated from the upper glass is assumed to be

the same as the heat of incoming sunlight, as incoming energy is
equal to out-coming energy. Now, the situation is just like that of the
bare-rock model, thus we can know that the temperature of glass is
also equal to 255K.
Then, IR emitted from ground is equal to the sum of the IR
emitted from the upper and lower side of glass:
4
4
4
T glass + T glass = T ground
And the IR emitted from upper glass is equal to the IR emitted from
lower side:
2 T 4glass = T 4ground
After substitution of 255K into Tglass and some calculation, we can
know that the temperature of ground with the atmosphere is about
303K (Archer, 2012).
From the above two models, we can know that with the
atmosphere added, the ground temperature will be increased since
heat is trapped by the atmosphere. However, it is insufficient to say
that the greenhouse effect is fully demonstrated as the real
temperature of the earths surface is about 288K actually (Sokolik,
2008). It is because there are still many other factors, such as the
latent heat transfer, which havent been discussed. Therefore, a
more comprehensive model called the Earth Radiation Budget is
introduced in the next section.
Earth Radiation Budget
The radiation budget represents the balance between incoming
energy from the Sun and outgoing thermal (longwave) and reflected
(shortwave) energy from the Earth (NASA, 2012).

(Kiehl, 1997)

Left hand side of the figure is about the incoming shortwave

energy, while the right hand side is about the outgoing longwave
energy from the earth.
For the incoming sunlight, around 30% of the sunlight is
reflected out by the atmosphere and surface; around 50% is
absorbed by the ground; around 23% is absorbed by the
atmosphere. Some of the light is reflected because some agents like
cloud and snow are shine, i.e. high albedo, so they reflect light away.
Most of the light can pass through atmosphere because air is
transparent to sunlight.
Heat is then emitted by the earths surface in the form of IR
radiation. Due to the fact that the atmosphere acts as blackbody
towards long wavelength IR, nearly 90% of the IR is absorbed by the
atmosphere and the greenhouse gases, and is radiated back to the
ground. The ground absorbs the heat again and is further heated up.
However, not all the IR light emitted by the ground is absorbed
by the atmosphere. A portion of IR is emitted by the atmosphere
and finally go out the earth. There is also an atmospheric window,
which the IR can pass directly to space without intermediate
absorption and re-emission (Roach, 2006).
There are some other ways to lose heat from earth, such as
evapotranspiration. Although they are not the major means to lose
heat, they actually cause the earths surface to lower to 288K
(Sokolik, 2008).
We can see that greenhouse gases play a quite important role in
greenhouse effect. Next, greenhouse gases would be discussed.
Greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases are very important in greenhouse effect.
They are nearly transparent to sunlight but act as blackbody to
longwave IR radiation emitted by the ground. The greenhouses

gases then emit IR light back to the ground. This process heats up
the ground as a result.
Not all atmospheric gases are greenhouse gases. Greenhouse
gases are those gases which are IR active. To be IR active, the
molecules must not be symmetrical. In fact, only a very small
percentage of gases in the atmosphere are greenhouse gases, as O2
and N2 already make up around 98% of the atmosphere.
There are several major types of greenhouse gases, namely
carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and ozone. Different
greenhouse gas absorbs different range of IR light as they only
absorb and emit the IR light with the frequency same as their
vibration frequency (Archer, 2012).
Note that different types of greenhouse gases contributes
differently to the greenhouse effect.
Major Greenhouse Gas
% of Greenhouse Effect
Water vapor
Water vapor & Cloud droplets
Carbon dioxide
Methane
Ozone

36% to 66%
66% to 85%
9% to 26%
4% to 9%
3% to 7%

(National Earth Science Teachers Association, 2007)

This may due to the fact that different type of greenhouse gases has
different percentage in the atmosphere and they absorb different
range of frequency of IR light.
Application
Greenhouse effect is important to us because it makes the earth
that we are living hotter. There is a say that without greenhouse
effect, our planet would be 30 colder (Archer, 2012)! In other
words, it is greenhouse effect that actually makes our planet more
habitable.
In addition, greenhouse effect also affects the weather
condition, which is closely related to our daily lives. Earth's
temperature is a result of the equilibrium between the solar energy
absorbed by the earth and the outgoing IR radiation from the earth.
So, a little change in the balance can have a change in the earths
temperature and thus the weather. For example, an increase in solar
radiation can result in higher average temperatures and thus a
higher water vapor content of the atmosphere due to the
evaporation of ocean. This can either causes a higher or lower
temperature. It is because water vapor is a greenhouse gas so it can
trap the IR radiation emitted by earth and thus increases the
temperature. On the other hand, a higher water vapor content of
the atmosphere can increase the cloud formation so the albedo of
earth is increased. Temperature is thus decreased because more
sunlight is reflected.
Greenhouse effect is not a system that never change. Any
changes
(natural or human induced) in gases, aerosols, clouds, or the surface

has the potential to alter the radiation balance (Sokolik, 2008).

Therefore, a little change of the system might cause the mechanism
to respond and reach a new equilibrium. Since the industrialization,
human activities have already changed a lot. The increasing burning
of fossil fuels, deforestation and other human activities drastically
increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
For example, let us see the concentration increase of carbon
dioxide. The atmospheric concentration of CO2 has increased from
280 ppm during pre-industrial times (Etheridge at el., 1996) to 391
ppm in 2012 (Tans, 2012). This drastic increase in greenhouse gases
caused by recent human activities is called the enhanced
greenhouse effect. This enhanced greenhouse effect may increase
earths temperature because more greenhouse gases mean more
heat is trapped inside the earth. And from the previous paragraph,
we can know that the enhanced greenhouse effect can alter the
weather condition. Actually, not just the weather, the enhanced
greenhouse effect also has a high chance to cause climate change.
It is because the huge rise of greenhouse gases concentration may
have a long term impact and this cannot be easily reversed back to
the concentration level in pre-industrial times before. Therefore, it is
quite make sense that the enhanced greenhouse effect really would
cause the global warming.
To conclude, greenhouse effect traps heat inside earth. Although
the enhanced greenhouse effect may be responsible for the global
warming,or more precisely the climate change, greenhouse effect is
still needed. Without greenhouse effect, the planet that we are now
living is simply too cold and thus may not be habitable to human.
Therefore, people should try their best to alter the human activities,
such as decrease the demand for fossil fuels, in order to prevent
extreme weather conditions from happening.
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November 15, 2012, from http://science.larc.nasa.gov/erbe/
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http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/greenhouse_effe

ct_gases.html
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