Greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases
Greenhouse gases are those that can absorb and emit infrared radiation. In order, the most abundant greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are:
- water vapor (H2O)
- carbon dioxide (CO2)
- methane (CH4)
- nitrous oxide (N2O)
- ozone (O3)
Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are determined by the balance between sources (emissions of the gas from human activities and natural systems) and sinks (the removal of the gas from the atmosphere by conversion to a different chemical compound). The proportion of an emission remaining in the atmosphere after a specified time is the "Airborne fraction" (AF). More precisely, the annual AF is the ratio of the atmospheric increase in a given year to that year’s total emissions. For CO2 the AF over the last 50 years (1956–2006) has been increasing at 0.25 ± 0.21%/year.
