this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
384 points (99.7% liked)
Futurama
12637 readers
70 users here now
For all things Futurama
Rule 1: Don't be a jerkwad!
Rule 2: Alternate video links to be linked in a comment, below the original video.
Related Communities
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Not really. Greenhouse gases don't absorb all wavelengths of light. Generally they only absorb parts of the IR spectrum. The 50-70% of light reflected isn't absorbed by greenhouse gasses because it's not in a wavelength that it can absorb, it mostly radiates back into space.
Ah, and much of that energy would be absorbed on the way in. So the additional energy absorbed on the way out depends on how the surface material changes the reflected light or later radiates the absorbed energy.
Kinda. Most of the light from the sun is in the visible spectrum and the atmosphere does not absorb those frequencies well. Incoming light that gets reflected (snow/ice) stays in the same wavelengths so it passes back out just as easily. However the light that is absorbed by the ground is re-radiated mostly as IR and the atmosphere, specifically greenhouse gases are really good at absorbing those.
There's a lot more going on though, it's really complicated. Here are 2 vids that do a good job at explaining it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFOuoD3aHw&ab_channel=SixtySymbols
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqu5DjzOBF8&ab_channel=SabineHossenfelder