ClimateSanity
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Holding it for a microsecond before releasing it again is hardly trapping. Over 99% of the atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen. The suns rays hit the earth. The earth warms. It radiates heat to space. Some of that radiated heat is absorbed by greenhouse gases. Some heat is directly absorbed by conduction from ground to the air. As for the radiated heat, it doesn't just bounce from one green house gas to the next on the way to space. These greenhouse gases collide with non greenhouse gases and transfer their heat. From there, the heat is connected upward in the atmosphere whenever one volume of air is warmer than its surroundings. As they rise, heat energy is converted to potential energy and they fall back toward earth again. When these warm parcels of air are high in the atmosphere, they collide with greenhouse gases again, mainly water vapor. After a certain altitude, the water vapor concentration is very low and so there is nothing to capture radiated heat from rising parcels of warmed air.
The amount of time involved in the above scenario is sufficient to warm our atmosphere from below zero temperatures to the temperatures we see today. Radiation bouncing from one greenhouse gas to another without being absorbed by the larger atmosphere is hardly enough stalling time needed to produce the livable planet we have today.
The amount of time involved in the above scenario is sufficient to warm our atmosphere from below zero temperatures to the temperatures we see today. Radiation bouncing from one greenhouse gas to another without being absorbed by the larger atmosphere is hardly enough stalling time needed to produce the livable planet we have today.
