while mirrors are directional, the reradiation of energy from greenhouse gasses is not: the emitted photons might travel in any direction in the atmosphere, possibly resulting in their reabsorption by another molecule. Still, it can be useful to keep this picture in mind: adding more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere is rather like adding more of these tiny mirrors, trapping energy for a longer time (and thus allowing the same amount of energy to have a greater net radiative forcing effect) than it otherwise would be.
The greenhouse effect explains, among other things, why the temperature of Earth is relatively stable during both the days and nights. On bodies without an atmosphere (or without an atmosphere composed of molecules that strongly interact with outgoing radiation), an absence of active radiative forcing (during the night, say) generally results in an extreme drop in temperature. The difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures on Mercury (which has virtually no atmosphere) is over 600 degrees C, a shift which is (to put it mildly) hostile to life. With an atmosphere to act as a heat reservoir, though, temporary removal of the active energy source doesn’t result in such an immediate and drastic temperature drop. During the Earth’s night, energy absorbed by the atmosphere during the day is slowly re-released, keeping surface temperatures more stable. A similar effect explains why land near large bodies of water (oceans or very large lakes) tends to have a more temperate climate than land that is isolated from water; large bodies of water absorb a significant amount of solar radiation and re-release it very slowly, which tends to result in less extreme temperature variation[1].
- ↑ The clever reader will note that this implies that the water on Earth’s surface plays a significant role in regulating the overall climate. This is absolutely true (aren’t you clever?), and the most advanced climate models are, in effect, models of atmospheric and aquatic dynamics that have been “coupled” together. So far, though, this too is a detail that is beyond the scope of our discussion (and the simple model we’ve been considering). We’ll return to this point in the next chapter.
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