The greenhouse effect is the radiative process by which certain atmospheric gases (notably water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone) absorb and re-emit longwave (infrared) radiation emitted by Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere, thereby reducing the net outgoing longwave flux to space and warming the lower troposphere and surface. It arises from molecular vibrational and rotational absorption bands that are transparent to most incoming shortwave solar radiation but partially opaque to outgoing terrestrial radiation. In climate science, the greenhouse effect is quantified via radiative forcing, feedbacks (e.g., water vapor and cloud feedbacks), and its role in establishing Earth’s energy balance and global mean temperature.
An analysis of forest-based projects funded through the sale of carbon credits shows that 10% of them may have a net warming effect on the climate because of the way they alter Earth's albedo, or how much sunlight is reflected ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 7, 2025
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A study published today in Earth System Dynamics provides a critical and previously underestimated connection between Antarctic sea ice, cloud cover, and global warming. This research is important because it shows that a ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 2, 2025
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Between a third and half of all soil carbon on Earth is stored in peatlands, says Tom and Marie Patton Distinguished Professor Joel Kostka. These wetlands—formed from layers and layers of decaying plant matter—span from the ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 18, 2025
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Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are known to raise temperatures in Earth's atmosphere. But slow feedback processes, including heat storage in the ocean and changes in the carbon cycle, mean that sometimes, such temperature ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 15, 2025
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While the early climate of Mars remains an open question, a new study suggests that its atmosphere may have been hospitable to life due to volcanic activity that emitted sulfur gases that contributed to a greenhouse warming ...
Astrobiology
Sep 11, 2025
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98
As extreme weather events become more frequent and the impacts of climate change become stronger, countries around the world are strengthening their decarbonization efforts. The 2016 Paris Agreement in particular represents ...
Environment
Sep 10, 2025
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20
Billions upon billions of soot particles enter Earth's atmosphere each second, totaling about 5.8 million metric tons a year—posing a climate-warming impact previously estimated at almost one-third that of carbon dioxide.
Earth Sciences
Sep 3, 2025
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64
Clouds are important for Earth's energy balance because they interact with radiation in different ways. On one hand, low clouds reflect incoming solar radiation and thus cool Earth through a property known as albedo. On the ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 28, 2025
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36
The world will warm more than expected due to future changes in ozone, which protects the Earth from harmful sun rays but also traps heat as it is a greenhouse gas.
Earth Sciences
Aug 20, 2025
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236
Thawing permafrost is a major climate risk due to the associated release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). However, new research by a team led by Prof. Yang Yuanhe from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 20, 2025
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