Greenhouse Gases and their effects on the Earth April 8 2020

I am sharing here resources to understand the role of greenhouse gases and the
temperature of our planet earth and its relation to the heat budget of our planet.

In the previous lecture, we could understand the role of our Sun as a driver of so many
processes.

We discussed the dependence of the insolation on so many factors.

The albedo of the Earth and heat budget of the Earth. The albedo of the
Earth is dependent on so many other factors such as nature of clouds,
age of the snow, ice cover, forests etc.
The greenhouse gases play an important role in the radiation budget.
Major greenhouse gases are CO 2, CH4 etc. H2O is one of the important
greenhouse entity. These gases envelop our earth. What would be the
effect if these are not there, what effect it will have on the temperature of
the Earth? What if there amount is increased excessively.
Before, we proceed further,
Please go through an e-resource attached here. https://tropicsu.org/planetary-
energy-balance/

There is an activity attached in it. Try It out and pen down your observations.

Also find attached herewith an image from the NASA website with the description.
Kindly go through it carefully and try to see the values in W/m 2 which are different
components of incoming and outgoing radiations. A questionnaire will follow on
Saturday at 1.00 pm based on this figure and other questions on this topic (Some of
the questions are given below)

Also try to see what is the role of GH (Greenhouse gases in the heat budget of the
earth and how do these contribute in maintaining the balance?
Also fill in the attached question sheet.

1. What are the prominent greenhouse gases?

2. Why methane concentration increase on the Earth is of major concern?

3. What is the role of greenhouse gases on the temperature of the Earth?

4. Which atmospheric species respond to the infrared radiation, explain in terms of

their chemical structure?

5. Send the albedo of different objects asked in the previous lecture.

6. How has the concentration of the greenhouse gases ( Check for important 2-3) has
changed in last 100 years?

7. What is the role of water as a greenhouse entity?

8. What is Greenhouse gas effect? Discuss.

Be safe, take precautions and be hopeful always 