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The greenhouse effect is the retention by the Earth's atmosphere in the form of heat some of the energy that arrives from the Sun as light. Certain gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), are transparent to most of the wavelengths of light arriving from the Sun but are relatively opaque to infrared or heat radiation; thus, energy passes through the Earth's atmosphere on arrival, is converted to heat by absorption at the surface and in the atmosphere, and is not easily re-radiated into space. The same process is used to heat a solar greenhouse, only with glass, rather than gas, as the heat-trapping material. The greenhouse effects happens to maintain the Earth's surface temperature within a range comfortable for living things; without it, the Earth's surface would be much colder.
Read more: http://science.jrank.org/pages/3148/Greenhouse-Effect.html#ixzz0VTb0CER9
Read more: http://science.jrank.org/pages/3148/Greenhouse-Effect.html#ixzz0VTb0CER9
