jenb

Thanks. Based on your help, and with a bit of research, I think I just misremembered it, and possibly misunderstood it originally. With my research, I found a couple of helpful pages. This one says that 49% of the radiation emitted by the sun is lower frequency than visible light, and Another source says that 55% of the solar radiation arriving at the earth’s surface is this type of energy. http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/module-2/radiation-sun.php And the attached diagram (available at the link below) shows that CO2 absorbs more of such radiation than is emitted from the surface of the earth. With the huge increase in atmospheric CO2 over past decades, shouldn’t we have observed a change in the percentage of lower than visible frequency light arriving at the earth’s surface? If this diagram is correct, then wouldn’t increased atmospheric CO2 result in so much less energy arriving at the earth’s surface during the day that it should at least partially offset the increase in trapped radiation from the earths surface at night? Do the doom and gloom predictions take that into account? http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/module-2/how-greenhouse-effect-works.php

Well I recall a greenhouse effect diagram that shows most of the IR light being bent almost entirely away from the earth, and showing the Ir radiation from the earth being trapped by atmospheric greenhouse gasses. The upshot was that the increase in greenhouse gasses increases the temperature because it doesn’t reduce much or any incoming heat, it just reduces outgoing heat.

In the attached graph, which I think is from NASA but I don’t for sure, how is temperature of past centuries and thousands of years ago determined? When I studied environmental physics 20 years ago, I was taught that CO2 content of Antarctic ice core samples was correlated directly to temperature. Was a different method used here? Can someone please direct me to some peer reviewed info on atmospheric effects? I’m specifically trying to find information on how much of the infra red radiation from the sun is prevented from reaching the earth’s crust and inner atmosphere by refraction or similar. I want to know if increase in atmospheric CO2 could yield any decrease in IR radiation that heats the inner atmosphere and crust, and if the potential issue has been studied. Thanks in advance.