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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

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