What is the Greenhouse Effect and what are Greenhouse Gases?
Greenhouse Effect is defined as the warming near the earth’s surface that results when the earth’s atmosphere traps the heat received from the sun. Without this effect, the average temperature of the earth would be around 33 degrees Celsius lower. The Greenhouse Effect received its name because the earth atmosphere acts like the glass roof and walls of agreenhouse. The earth’s atmosphere allows most of the sunlight that reaches it to pass throughand heat the earth’s surface. Heat energy is then sent back into the atmosphere as infraredradiation. A lot of this radiation does not pass freely into space, because certain gases in theatmosphere absorb it. These gases are known as greenhouse gases (GHG). They include carbondioxide (CO2), water vapour (H2O), ozone (O3), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O),chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphurhexafluoride (SF6).
