What is an example of the greenhouse effect?
1 Answer
Night time cooling and cloud cover heat retention is an example of the greenhouse effect.
Explanation:
Night time cooling occurs as Earth releases or emits thermal radiation, or heat, in the form of "long wave radiation". This is essentially a release of heat.
Cloud cover heat retention occurs during cloudy nights. During a cloudy night, longwave radiation emitted by Earth is absorbed by clouds. A portion of the energy absorbed is re-emitted back to Earth, while the remainder is emitted into outer space.
Just like how cloud cover can act as a sort of blanket by retaining heat released by Earth, greenhouses gasses work in a similar fundamental manner but on a longer scale of time because unlike cloud cover, greenhouse gasses are always present in the atmosphere.
