SCIENCE · INVESTIGATE AND EXPLAIN

Connect the greenhouse mechanism to an energy imbalance

Distinguish reflected sunlight, outgoing infrared radiation and stored energy.

Learning outcome: Distinguish reflected sunlight, outgoing infrared radiation and stored energy.

Starting recap

Distinguish reflected sunlight, outgoing infrared radiation and stored energy.

All lessons are open directly. Your saved experiments remain when you leave and return.

Try

340 W/m² with 30% reflection absorbs 238; outgoing 240 gives−2 W/m².

Open the experiment

Predict

Does an energy imbalance itself specify a temperature change?

Your prediction and reason

Experiment

Hold reflectivity 30% and compare outgoing 225 with 255. Then vary reflection at fixed outgoing 240; name the missing heat-capacity and feedback information.

Close a top-of-atmosphere energy balance

Worked teaching model · synthetic values · Incoming global-average solar 340 W/m²; reflected fraction assigned. Absorbed=340(1−albedo); net=absorbed−outgoing longwave. No temperature equation, cloud feedback, spatial variation or forecast supplied.

Planetary reflectivity: 30 % Outgoing longwave radiation: 240 W/m²

Reset keeps your prediction, captures and practice history.

Original synthetic system; units differ by row
Quantity	Value	Unit
Incoming solar	340	W/m²
Reflected solar	102	W/m²
Absorbed solar	238	W/m²
Outgoing longwave	240	W/m²
Net energy accumulation rate	-2	W/m²

A positive top-of-atmosphere imbalance adds energy to the Earth system.

Greenhouse gases absorb and emit infrared radiation; changing outgoing energy at an initial temperature can require a warmer eventual balance. This ledger alone gives neither temperature nor time response.

Predict, change one control, and save contrasting captures. Reconstruct the balance with units; then explain a process the ledger deliberately leaves out. Display precision is not measurement precision.

A positive top-of-atmosphere imbalance adds energy to the Earth system.

Observation to attach to a capture

Captures preserve recipes and replay their calculated results. They are synthetic model evidence, not physical measurements.

Understand

Follow incoming and outgoing energy

Earth receives solar radiation, reflects some and absorbs the rest. The planet emits thermal infrared radiation toward space. At a long-term global energy balance, absorbed incoming energy equals outgoing energy. A positive imbalance means the Earth system gains energy; a negative imbalance means it loses energy. Storage in the ocean and other reservoirs means the response is not instantaneous.

Explain greenhouse gases without a solid-lid analogy

Greenhouse gases absorb and emit infrared radiation at relevant wavelengths. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor and ozone contribute through molecular properties; nitrogen and oxygen do not have the same infrared role. The natural greenhouse effect makes Earth’s surface warmer than a simple airless radiative comparison. Increasing greenhouse gas abundance can reduce outgoing radiation initially at a given temperature profile, leading to warming until a changed balance develops.

Close a declared top-of-atmosphere ledger

The supplied global-average incoming flux is 340 W/m². With 30% reflection,102 is reflected and 238 absorbed. If outgoing longwave is 240, the net is−2 W/m². Selecting 225 instead gives+13. These are original teaching values, not a current measured planetary imbalance. The controls independently assign terms; they do not solve atmospheric radiation or temperature.

Distinguish a forcing from a feedback

A change in greenhouse gases or incoming energy can initiate a response. Warming can increase atmospheric water vapor, amplifying the greenhouse effect, and reduce snow or ice reflectivity, increasing absorption. Other responses, including greater infrared emission as temperature rises, can oppose change. Cloud effects depend on properties and context; not every cloud change has one simple sign. A feedback describes a causal response loop, not merely two correlated variables.

Transfer and feedback

At incoming 300 and reflectivity 25%, absorbed energy is 225. Outgoing 220 gives+5 W/m², equivalent to 5 joules gained per second per square metre. A temperature change cannot be obtained without time, heat capacity and feedback information. Explain why a colder day at one location does not contradict a positive global long-term energy imbalance, and why ozone depletion is not the main explanation for the enhanced greenhouse effect.

Sources and evidence boundary

Original prose and numerical cases. Mechanisms and framework checked 30 October 2026: NASA climate mechanisms. All model values are synthetic, not measured global trends, species forecasts or policy-compliance determinations. Retained work is computational practice, not physical fieldwork or independent mastery.

Apply

Public practice checks a specific claim. It does not establish independent mastery.

Reconstruct a changed case, explain its causal mechanism and identify an omitted process or evidence that would challenge the inference.

Your explanation and limitations

Continue

Completion requires a saved prediction, at least one capture and a reflection. Presence checks do not grade your reasoning.

Skipping retains experiments and awards no mastery.

Previous: Explain ozone depletion and evaluate substitution tradeoffs Next: Compare greenhouse gas sources without confusing stocks and metrics

Save a science backup or import one

Science work is stored locally in this browser, separately from mathematics and AI. It does not sync automatically. Use this science-only backup; this checkout's older all-subject export does not include science.

A legacy file is available only when the complete snapshot fits the 36 MB limit. For larger snapshots, prepare a complete file set below; never discard notebooks to make a smaller file.

Choose a science backup (maximum 36 MB)

Matching imported notebook drafts replace their current drafts. Omitted lessons and known first attempts remain. Export your current work first if you want to retain both drafts.

Complete file sets and course backups

A file set can hold more work than one science file. Keep its manifest and every part together. Each file is limited to 36 MB. This format needs this version of LearnAI or a compatible newer version; older versions can use only the legacy single-file backup above.

Export scope

The set includes every saved science course and global continuation at this moment. Later edits need a new export. A conflicting tab exports its own visible work, which may differ from saved work in another tab.

Choose the manifest and all parts together

0 file(s) selected. File order and filenames do not determine identity. Missing, changed or conflicting parts block the entire restore; no good part is applied by itself.

Science storage: loading. No account or remote computation is required.