GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Visible light reaches Earth’s surface while infrared light is trapped as heat. Which characteristic of Earth’s atmosphere causes this to happen? Ultraviolet & visible light from the sun reaches the earth’s surface and is converted to infrared waves (energy) that is trapped by CO2.

Detailed explanation-2: -Visible light reaches Earth’s surface while infrared light is trapped as heat.

Detailed explanation-3: -The greenhouse effect: some of the infrared radiation from the Sun passes through the atmosphere, but most is absorbed and re-emitted in all directions by greenhouse gas molecules and clouds. The effect of this is to warm the Earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere.

Detailed explanation-4: -Earth’s surface and atmosphere absorbs solar radiation and re-radiates it as longwave radiation. We feel this longwave radiation as heat. Energy radiated from Earth’s surface as heat, or infrared radiation, is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases, impeding the loss of heat from our atmosphere to space.

Detailed explanation-5: -Human Activity Is the Cause of Increased Greenhouse Gas Concentrations. Over the last century, burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This increase happens because the coal or oil burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO2.