What does greenhouse effect mean?

Definitions for greenhouse effect
green·house effect

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word greenhouse effect.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. greenhouse effect, greenhouse warmingnoun

    warming that results when solar radiation is trapped by the atmosphere; caused by atmospheric gases that allow sunshine to pass through but absorb heat that is radiated back from the warmed surface of the earth

Wiktionary

  1. greenhouse effectnoun

    (with the) The process by which a planet is warmed by its atmosphere.

Wikipedia

  1. Greenhouse effect

    The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from a planet's host star goes through the planet's atmosphere and heats the planet's surface, but greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from returning directly to space, resulting in a warmer planet. Earth's natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it possible and carbon dioxide plays a significant role in providing for the relatively high temperature on Earth. The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary atmosphere warms the planet's surface beyond the temperature it would have in the absence of its atmosphere. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth's average surface temperature would be about −18 °C (−0.4 °F) compared to Earth's actual average surface temperature of approximately 14 °C (57.2 °F). In addition to the naturally present greenhouse gases, human-caused increases in greenhouse gases trap greater amounts of heat, causing the Earth to become warmer over time.Anything radiates energy related to its temperature: the Sun—at about 5,500 °C (9,930 °F)—sends most of its energy as visible and near infrared light, while Earth's average surface temperature—at about 15 °C (59 °F)—emits longer-wavelength infrared, radiant heat. The atmosphere is transparent to most incoming sunlight, and allows its energy through to heat the surface. Most gases in the atmosphere are transparent to infrared, but the small proportion of the atmosphere that constitutes greenhouse gases absorbs some of the heat emitted by the surface rather than letting it escape into space. These greenhouse gas molecules then emit radiant heat in all directions, passing heat to the surrounding air and warming other greenhouse gas molecules. Radiant heat going downwards further increases the temperature of the surface, which then returns heat to the atmosphere in a positive feedback cycle. Without Earth's natural greenhouse effect the Earth would be more than 30 °C (54 °F) colder.A runaway greenhouse effect occurs when greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere through a positive feedback cycle to such an extent that they substantially block thermal radiation (heat) from escaping into space, thus preventing the planet from cooling. The runaway greenhouse effect occurred with carbon dioxide and water vapor on Venus. It is unlikely that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions alone could trigger a runaway effect on Earth. The term greenhouse effect comes from a flawed analogy to greenhouses, which have transparent glass that passes sunlight but retains heat by physically restricting air movement; radiative effects are not involved.

ChatGPT

  1. greenhouse effect

    The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. It is caused when certain gases in the Earth's atmosphere trap heat from the Sun, preventing it from escaping back into space. These gases, known as greenhouse gases, include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor. The greenhouse effect is vital for life on Earth as it helps to maintain the planet's temperature. However, human activities like burning fossil fuels have significantly increased the levels of these gases, intensifying the greenhouse effect and leading to global warming and climate change.

Wikidata

  1. Greenhouse effect

    The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface and the lower atmosphere, it results in an elevation of the average surface temperature above what it would be in the absence of the gases. Solar radiation at the frequencies of visible light largely passes through the atmosphere to warm the planetary surface, which then emits this energy at the lower frequencies of infrared thermal radiation. Infrared radiation is absorbed by greenhouse gases, which in turn re-radiate much of the energy to the surface and lower atmosphere. The mechanism is named after the effect of solar radiation passing through glass and warming a greenhouse, but the way it retains heat is fundamentally different as a greenhouse works by reducing airflow, isolating the warm air inside the structure so that heat is not lost by convection. If an ideal thermally conductive blackbody was the same distance from the Sun as the Earth is, it would have a temperature of about 5.3 °C. However, since the Earth reflects about 30% of the incoming sunlight, this idealized planet's effective temperature would be about −18 °C. The surface temperature of this hypothetical planet is 33 °C below Earth's actual surface temperature of approximately 14 °C. The mechanism that produces this difference between the actual surface temperature and the effective temperature is due to the atmosphere and is known as the greenhouse effect.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Greenhouse Effect

    The effect of GLOBAL WARMING and the resulting increase in world temperatures. The predicted health effects of such long-term climatic change include increased incidence of respiratory, water-borne, and vector-borne diseases.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of greenhouse effect in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of greenhouse effect in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of greenhouse effect in a Sentence

  1. James Hansen:

    I would like to draw three main conclusions, number one, the Earth is warmer in 1988 than at any time in the history of instrumental measurements. Number two, the global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship to the greenhouse effect. And number three, our computer climate simulations indicate that the greenhouse effect is already large enough to begin to affect the probability of extreme events such as summer heat waves.


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"greenhouse effect." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/greenhouse+effect>.

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