8.3 The greenhouse gases and aerosols
The species that interact with thermal radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface
well known. It is these ‘greenhouse gases’ that give rise to the absorption peaks that are
observed in the three regions of the IR spectrum as described above. Their concentrations,
and contribution to warming are listed in Table 8.3. We will look at each of the species
in turn.
Water
For the Earth, water vapour is actually the most important of all greenhouse gases, and it
absorbs JR in the ranges 4000—3300