🌍 THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT: KEEPING EARTH WARM
PAGE 1 OF 5, SUN IN, HEAT OUT
ENERGY BALANCE
EARTH IS A WARM PLANET IN COLD SPACE
Space around Earth is freezing, yet our home feels cosy enough for oceans, forests, and you. The Sun sends short-wave sunlight through the atmosphere. Land, sea, and clouds absorb that energy and warm up. Warm surfaces then send heat back upward as invisible infrared radiation. Some of that outgoing heat escapes to space. Some is caught by gases in the air and returned toward the ground. That trapping process is called the greenhouse effect. It works a bit like a blanket: not making new heat, but slowing how fast warmth leaves.
🔑 NAME CLUE
Garden greenhouses use glass to trap heat for plants. Earth's atmosphere traps heat with gases instead of glass panes.
WARM!
SUN BEAM
☀️ Visible sunlight passes through air easily and reaches forests, deserts, and ocean surfaces.
🌊 Dark ocean water absorbs lots of solar energy, which is why coastal cities often feel milder at night.
🌊 Dark ocean water absorbs lots of solar energy, which is why coastal cities often feel milder at night.
HEAT OUT
📡 Infrared is heat radiation you feel from a campfire even when you are not touching the flames.
🌙 At night Earth keeps radiating infrared upward while the Sun is shining on the other side of the planet.
🌙 At night Earth keeps radiating infrared upward while the Sun is shining on the other side of the planet.