The Ozone Layer
...vapor; carbon dioxide and ozone play in keeping the earth's surface
warmer than it would normally be. The atmosphere is primarily transparent to
infrared radiation from the sun, which is mostly absorbed by the earth's surface.
The earth being much cooler than the sun, remits radiation most strongly at
infrared wavelengths. Water vapor, carbon dioxide and ozone then absorb much of
this radiation and remit a large proportion back towards the earth. The
atmosphere thus acts as a kind of blanket: without its presents the earth's
average ground temperature of 15 degrees Celsius would fall to -28 degrees
Celsius. The termed greenhouse effect implies that a comparable effect keeps
the interior of the green house warm. Actually, the man role of the glass in a
green house is to prevent convection currents from mixing cooler air outside
with the warmer air inside.
Although water is the most important factor in the greenhouse effect, is
a major reason why human regions experience less cooling at night than do dry
regions. Changes in both water and carbon dioxide play an important role in
climate changes. For this reason many scientist have expressed concerns over
the global increase of carbon dioxide in resent decades, largely as a result of
the burring of fossil fuels. In many other factors of the earth's present
climate remain more or less constant, the carbon dioxide increase should raise
the average temperature at the earth's surface. Because warm air can contain
warm water before reaching saturation than cooler air can, the amount of water
would probably increase as the atmosphere got warmer . This process could go on
forever. Although this considered unlikely many negative feed backs could as so
occur, such as increase in cloud cover or increase carbon dioxide absorption
by the oceans, the results of even a limited rise in average surface temperature...
View Full Essay
