Greenhouse gases are atmospheric constituents that absorb and emit infrared radiation, thereby contributing to the greenhouse effect and Earth’s radiative energy balance. Major greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), ozone (O₃), and various halogenated compounds, along with water vapour (H₂O) as a feedback agent. Their radiative forcing depends on concentration, spectral absorption properties, atmospheric lifetime, and overlap with other absorbers. In climate research, greenhouse gases are quantified via metrics such as global warming potential and effective radiative forcing to assess their contribution to anthropogenic climate change and to inform emissions mitigation strategies.
Transitioning to clean energy is not just about reducing carbon emissions—it's also about saving lives. According to a Princeton-led study, reducing emissions from American power plants, buildings, and vehicles not only mitigates ...
Environment
Mar 19, 2025
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The term greenhouse gas often brings carbon dioxide (CO2) to mind, and rightly so, as it is a key contributor to rising global temperatures. However, a more potent pollutant and greenhouse gas that often gets overlooked is ...
A group of construction managers and real estate specialists at Tsinghua University, in China, has found that the unusually high number of unoccupied residential units in China's cities is responsible for releasing massive ...
An international study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres has provided new insights into global fossil methane emissions, using innovative multi-isotopic atmospheric measurements.
Earth Sciences
Mar 12, 2025
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For years, cities have been taking on efforts to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Yet little has been done to verify if such work has the intended outcome.
Environment
Mar 12, 2025
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MIT aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there.
Space Exploration
Mar 10, 2025
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The seasonal variations of methane in the Martian atmosphere is an intriguing clue that there might be life hiding under the surface of the red planet. But we won't know for sure until we go digging for it.
Astrobiology
Nov 18, 2024
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Alongside carbon dioxide, methane is a key driver of global warming. To detect and monitor the climate pollutants in the atmosphere precisely, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) have developed ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 15, 2024
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123
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new laser-based technique that could dramatically improve our ability to analyze a variety of materials and gases, including greenhouse ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 9, 2024
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41
As a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) contributes to climate change as it accumulates in the atmosphere. One way to reduce the amount of unwanted CO2 in the atmosphere is to convert the gas into a useful carbon product ...
Nanomaterials
May 6, 2024
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