Why is most of the radiant energy recieved by the earth returned to space as infared radiation ?
954216
no it is wrong sunlight is the mxture of seven colors in those the infrared rays have maximum wave length , even the plants absorb the infra red rays during photosynthesis.nothing is returned by the earth
918513
Heat transfer in the Earth's atmosphere is dominated by radiation effects, rather than thermal conduction or convection.\n\nIt's complicated, but on average the Earth's surface is a few tens of degrees warmer than the surface of the Moon, which receives the same amount of sunlight, and of course has no atmosphere.
375503
Space.  No kidding.  Sprites and Elves show us that the energy is coming from way up in the ionosphere, which is the outer boundary of the Earth's electric field.  Unfortunately, all the scientists we have nowadays are stupid or the satellites have been hijacked by someone who doesn't want us to know what causes lightning. Either way, it's not official yet.  But with all the crazy weather we've been getting nowadays and with all the awesome thunderstorms that cause hundreds of thousands of cloud to ground strikes, it shouldn't be too long before somebody realizes all this energy has to be coming from somewhere other than the clouds themselves.
865349
Energy in the form of photons is generated in the sun's core. Photons like to take off at the speed of light, so they do. But they move only 1micron before running into(being absorbed by) a gas molecule. That's because the gas atoms at the center of the sun has a pressure of 250 billion times the earth atmosphere's sea level pressure. That is why gas atoms are so hard for photons to miss. But the gas atom gets so excited with the extra energy it carries from that hot photon that it lets go of another photon, that promptly runs into another gas atom. This emitting & absorption occurs 100 million trillion times PER YEAR.  You'd think all this elbowing going on that it would get to the sun's surface fairly quickly. But this radiative process takes from 30,000 to 200,000 years to make it only about 55% of the way to the sun's surface. But once it makes it to this higher convective layer of the sun(like the earth atmosphere's lower convective atmosphere), then the energy is transported fairly quickly to the sun's surface.
966288
I remember this from college as being quite a long time, but I can't remember it exactly. This is from Wikipedia:\n\n"The high-energy photons (gamma and X-rays) released in fusion reactions take a long time to reach the Sun's surface, slowed down by the indirect path taken, as well as by constant absorption and reemission at lower energies in the solar mantle. Estimates of the "photon travel time" range from as much as 50 million years to as little as 17,000 years."
107520
There are many types of electromagnetic radiation. Some we can see, which we call light. Some is lower frequency, like infrared radiation, which is the heat we feel from sunlight, or from a campfire or a stove. Some is higher frequency , like ultraviolet radiation, the radiation. Electromagnetic radiation can travel through space. It does not need any propagation medium to travel in.
298607
I do not know how deep you want to go. This could get quite complicated. \n\nThe simple answer is that it absorbs infrared radiation. That is, it is opague to IR light (heat). \n\n\nHere is how it does it:\n\nLight at all wavelengths falls on the atmosphere. Some gets transmitted to the ground. The surface absorbs this radiation, and some of it gets reradiated as heat, or IR light. The carbon dioxide in the air will not let it escape out into space.\n\nOf course, one can make this far more sophisticated and detailed.\n\n- - - - - - - -  - - - - \n\nObviously this is a multiple-choice homework problem. I am afraid if you cannot figure out which answer to choose from my response, then you have some problems. You need to ask the teacher for help. I will not spoon-feed you.
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Let us try a slightly different explanation the the prior. \nFor discussion sake we will call the Long wave energy low frequency and the short wave energy high frequency.\n\nThe incoming Solar energy has many frequencies of energy, some is reflected by clouds, some is absorbed by clouds.  Some of the energy is simply absorbed in the air.  However, of the 1360 Watts per square meter reaching the outer atmosphere nearly 340 Watts ends up being absorbed by the earth and nearly 550 Watts is reflected from the surface of the earth.  \n\nThe reflected energy is at a slightly higher frequency and most passes back out into space, unless it is absorbed by by Clouds.  The balance of the earth based or Terrestrial absorbed energy is at a lower frequency and is radiated back towards space.  This earth based energy is readily absorbed by the Greenhouse Gasses that make up part of the earths atmosphere.  Once this energy has reached the Greenhouse Gasses it is re-radiated back towards the earth.\n\nIt is the character of Greenhouse Gasses to intercept the 20 micro meter energy of earth based radiant energy and return it towards the earth.  As a general rule the 900 nano meter energy of water vapor passes through the Greenhouse gasses and escapes into space.  So it is a combination of earth based energies and Greenhouse Gasses that contribute most to Global Warming.  If you reduce the amount of land or the amount of Greenhouse Gasses more of the incoming solar energy is returned towards space.\n\nDave Cooke
742313
Some is radiated back into space at night, some is transformed into mechanical energy (rain, clouds, winds) and some is transformed into plant matter by photosynthesis.
1170187
The absorbed photon may be re-emitted as either reflected or refracted light. If it is absorbed, its energy is converted into heat. In some materials, a high-energy photon will stimulate the emission of a lower-energy photon. This is called fluorescence.
246136
Insolation stands for "incoming solar radiation".
161041
Radiation in physics is a process of emission of energy or particles. Various forms of radiation may be distinguished, depending on the type of the emitted energy/matter, the type of the emission source, properties and purposes of the emission, etc.
427552
X-rays are absorbed by the topmost levels of the earth's atmosphere.\nThe same applies to the gamma radiation emitted by the sun.\n\nWhen the incoming radiation strikes the top of the atmosphere, it interacts with the air molecules and is absorbed (by being broken into a shower of exotic particles, none of which exist for long enough to reach the surface of the planet)\n\nThere are two windows for which radiation reaches the ground, One starting at UV through to visible light and to Infrared, and the Radiowave window which satellites communicate through.
981269
It's from radioctivity and friction.  The gas giants also create more heat than they recieve from the sun.  The sun is nowhere the near the only source of energy in the solar system.
563639
huh?\n\nSome of the InSolAtion is trapped by the clouds. Esp. at night co heat up the Earth's surface.  \n\nAlbedo: Clouds absorbing the light
523878
The moon gets its light from the sun!  Way out in outer space, the sun produces light and heat.  The sun's energy is reflected off the surface of the moon and bounced back to the Earth.  What we see is the reflection of the sun's light on the moon.
743939
Radio waves, radar, lasers, visible light, infrared and ultraviolet light, microwaves, X-rays and gamma rays, all travel as mass-less tiny packets of energy (photons) at the speed of light.  They can all easily pass through a perfect vacuum (as could a bullet!).  In fact photons interact with the electrons orbiting atoms and molecules and can be absorbed kicking the electrons into higher more energetic orbits or entirely out of the atoms during ionization.  When electrons return to their normal (rest) orbits in one or more steps they give up their excess energy in the form of fresh photons.  When a substance absorbs the energy of photons it will heat up and when the photons are released again the substance will cool.  When you hold up your palm to the sun, you can feel the warmth of the billions of photons that strike your hand which will quickly cool in the shade as it gives up more (infrared) photons than it receives.\n\nThe light that reaches your eye from a distant star is merely composed of photons of different wavelengths (colors) that have traveled through the near-perfect vacuum of space perhaps for years at the speed of light without interacting with any electrons.  In fact, clouds of gas in space could prevent the light from reaching you.