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4. Energy Budgets
The atmosphere is analogous to a greenhouse
As any body (e.g. the Earth's surface) heats up it emits radiation. The relatively cool Earth emits long wave radiation. It is this longer wavelength radiation that is trapped by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that gives rise to global warming. This is the greenhouse effect: the atmosphere is transparent to short-wave radiation, but opaque to long-wave radiation in the same way that greenhouse glass is transparent to visible light but traps infra-red radiation.
What is meant by the term 'greenhouse effect'?