**Greenhouse Gases Effect and Management**

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**13**

**Greenhouse Effect** 

*NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies* 

The greenhouse effect is the physical warming of the ground surface that arises in semitransparent planetary atmospheres that are heated by solar radiation. In order for the greenhouse effect to operate, the planet's atmosphere must be sufficiently transparent at visible wavelengths to allow significant amounts of solar radiation to be absorbed by the ground surface. The atmosphere must also be sufficiently opaque at thermal wavelengths to prevent thermal radiation emitted by the ground surface from escaping directly out to space. In such planetary atmospheres, the long-wave opacity for the absorption of radiation at thermal wavelengths is provided by the so-called greenhouse gases (e.g., water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide), although absorption by particulate matter such as that due to clouds and aerosols can also make significant contributions to the greenhouse effect. The net effect of the planetary greenhouse effect is to keep the ground surface of the planet at a warmer temperature than it would otherwise be if there were no greenhouse effect. The operation of a greenhouse effect also imparts a temperature gradient in the planet's atmosphere, with the highest temperatures being at the ground, decreasing with height in the atmosphere. This is primarily a radiative effect that is expected to occur in all planetary atmospheres where the ground surface is heated by solar radiation, and there is substantial atmospheric opacity at thermal wavelengths of

In our solar system, the greenhouse effect operates on those terrestrial planets that have substantial atmospheres (i.e., Earth, Mars, and Venus), including also on Saturn's moon Titan. Typically, carbon dioxide is the key greenhouse gas that keeps the ground surface temperatures of the terrestrial planets warmer than they would be without the greenhouse effect. The importance of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas stems from its very strong absorption bands that cover much of the thermal spectrum, and also because carbon dioxide does not condense and precipitate from the atmosphere at the prevailing temperatures on the terrestrial planets. Being so much farther from the sun, the atmosphere of Titan is much colder than the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets, so much so that carbon dioxide and water vapor cannot be maintained in gaseous form on Titan. Instead, the greenhouse effect on Titan is sustained primarily by pressure-induced

**1. Introduction** 

the spectrum.

**2. Planetary comparisons** 

Andrew A. Lacis

*New York, NY* 

*USA* 

*USA* 
