What types of radiation are reflected by the atmosphere?
Incoming ultraviolet, visible, and a limited portion of infrared energy (together sometimes called “shortwave radiation”) from the Sun drive the Earth’s climate system. Some of this incoming radiation is reflected off clouds, some is absorbed by the atmosphere, and some passes through to the Earth’s surface.
Does the atmosphere reflect radiation?
Remember that the majority of incoming radiation is in the visible spectrum while outgoing radiation is primarily infrared. In the atmosphere, dust and clouds are the two most important reflectors of radiation. In fact, on a global average, clouds reflect 20% of the incoming radiation.
How much radiation does the atmosphere reflect?
The Earth absorbs most of the energy reaching its surface, a small fraction is reflected. In total approximately 70% of incoming radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface while around 30% is reflected back to space and does not heat the surface.
What type of radiation is reflected?
Thus infrared radiation is responsible for warming Earth’s surface. Infrared light is reflected more than UV or visible light due to its longer wavelengths 10. This reflection allows infrared radiation to transfer heat between the surface, water and the air.
What is atmosphere radiation?
Atmospheric radiation is the flow of electromagnetic energy between the sun and the Earth’s surface as it is influenced by clouds, aerosols, and gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. It includes both solar radiation (sunlight) and long-wave (thermal) radiation.
What causes atmospheric radiation?
Atmospheric radiation originates with the Sun. Absorption of solar radiation by the Earth’s surface, and by water vapor and ozone in the lower atmosphere, warms the atmosphere, causing the emission of thermal infrared radiation at wavelengths corresponding to the spectral lines of infrared-active species.
What happens to the reflected radiation?
Reflection of solar radiation occurs when the radiation is sent directly backward from a surface. The fraction (or percentage) of radiation reflected back is known as albedo.
Which two bands of solar radiation are majority in the total solar radiation?
Which two bands of solar radiation are majority in the total solar radiation reaching earth? Explanation: Infrared and UV are the major components of the total solar radiation reaching earth. Infrared radiation makes up 49.4% and visible light makes up 42.3%. Only 8% of the total radiation is in the UV band.
How does radiation occur in the atmosphere?
About half of the solar radiation that strikes the top of the atmosphere is filtered out before it reaches the ground. This energy can be absorbed by atmospheric gases, reflected by clouds, or scattered. Scattering occurs when a light wave strikes a particle and bounces off in some other direction.
What is reflected from the atmosphere?
Atmospheric gas molecules and aerosols deflect solar radiation from its original path, scattering (reflecting) some radiation back into deep space and some toward Earth’s surface. Clouds reflect much more incoming solar radiation than they absorb. Cloud cover can be highly variable in space and time.
Is terrestrial radiation longwave or shortwave?
Terrestrial radiation is longwave low-energy radiation and is emitted in the range of 6000–20,000nm.
How is reflected radiation absorbed by the Earth?
Reflective Earth. Earth’s albedo, the amount of radiation reflected, is about 30% of the total incoming radiation from the Sun. The other 70% of the radiation is absorbed. The reflected radiation simply bounces off of Earth’s atmosphere and is re-emitted into space.
Why does the atmosphere absorb and trap infrared radiation?
Absorption. The gases of Earth’s atmosphere provide that insulation because some of them are greenhouse gases, gases that absorb and trap infrared radiation, which include water vapor and carbon dioxide. The more greenhouse gases are present in the atmosphere, the more heat is trapped, and the warmer the atmosphere tends to be.
Why are gases not good at absorbing radiation?
Not all of the gases in Earth’s atmosphere are good at absorbing incoming radiation. Many of them are responsible for scattering incoming radiation, particularly light waves, causing them to bounce off the molecules in multiple directions. The size of the gas molecule can influence the size of the wavelengths those gases can scatter.
How does the radiation from the sun affect the Earth?
Not only does solar radiation keep our planet’s climate livable for its inhabitants, it also is the driving force behind photosynthesis, the water cycle, and many other processes that make Earth habitable to the living things that call it home. But not all of the radiation emitted by the Sun makes it to the Earth’s surface.