Greenhouse gases infrared absorption

Carbon dioxide is not the only gas that can influence terrestrial infrared radiation, and infrared absorption is not the only way that composition influences climate. Other gases that are important for their infrared absorption, sometimes known as "greenhouse gases," include CH4, CCI2F2 (CEC-12), CECI3 (CFC-11), N2O, and O3. Taken together these other species are about of equal importance to CO2. That... 

Greenhouse effect The absorption of reflected infrared radiation from the Earth by gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) leading to atmospheric or global warming. 

Because O3 is a powerful infrared absorber and emitter (a greenhouse gas), and because many other greenhouse gases, notably CH4, are destroyed principally by reaction with OH, there are significant connections between atmospheric oxidation processes and climate. Added to these greenhouse gas related connections is the fact that the first step in the production of aerosols from gaseous SO2, NO2, and hydrocarbons is almost always the reaction with OH. Aerosols play a key role in climate through absorption and/or reflection of solar radiation. 

After water vapor and C02, methane (CH4) is the third most important greenhouse gas. Each additional molecule of CH4 added to the atmosphere absorbs about 20 times as much long-wave infrared radiation as does a molecule of carbon dioxide. This occurs in part because some of the absorption spectrum of methane lies in windows in the carbon dioxide absorption spectrum (see Fig. 4-42) therefore, methane absorbs wavelengths that are not already being highly attenuated by carbon dioxide. Currently, the global concentration of methane in the atmosphere is approximately 1.7 ppm and is increasing at an annual rate of approximately 0.01 ppm per year (Table 4-14). The seasonal fluctuations shown in Fig. 4-44 may correspond to seasonal... 

Glycoside linkage a C—O—C bond formed between the rings of two cyclic monosaccharides by the elimination of water. (22.6) Graham s law of effusion the rate of effusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of the mass of its particles. (5.7) Greenhouse effect a warming effect exerted by the earth s atmosphere (particularly COj and H2O) due to thermal energy retained by absorption of infrared radiation. (6.5)... 

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