Week 14
Greenhouse gases: a gas that absorbs and re-emits infrared light Earth's "blanket" and light Certain gases in our atmosphere act like a blanket around the Earth Light rays coming from the sun contain visible photons (energetic light particles) Visible photons are absorbed by Earths' surface and re-emitted as infrared photons We feel infrared photons as heat Albedo effect The reflectivity of a surface; how much radiation is reflected vs. absorbed COLOR has a major influence on albedo a high albedo means something is more reflective, a low albedo means it is less reflective/will absorb more radiation albedo = 1 ; completely reflects radiation albedo = 2; completely absorbed radiation Snowball Earth The Atmosphere is dynamic dust is transported from the Saharan Desert to the Amazon Basin air pollutants from China arrive at the coast of California Donora, PA, 1948 Great London Smog of 1952 Technologies developed to reduce emissions from power plants...