Greenhouse Effect

Greenhouse Effect: The greenhouse gas effect functions by trapping in the atmosphere heat from the Sun’s radiation. The greenhouse gases can be thought of as creating a one-way mirror—they allow the short wavelength energy emitted by the Sun to pass through the atmosphere and warm the Earth’s surface, but they do not allow all the longer wavelength energy radiated by the Earth back to space.

Credit: United Nations Environmental Program, based on the IPCC Third Assessment Report (2001). http://www.ipcc.ch/