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Dictionary definition: ‘greenhouse effect’
- Article from:
- A Dictionary of Ecology
- Author:
Copyright© A Dictionary of Ecology 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information)
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‘greenhouse effect’
The effect of heat retention in the lower atmosphere as a result of absorption and reradiation of long-wave (more than 4 μm) terrestrial radiation by clouds and gases (e.g. water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons), which make the atmosphere transparent to incoming short-wave radiation but partly opaque to reradiated long-wave radiation. The insulating effect is not strictly analogous ...