1.) Interact with this simple climate model to explore the greenhouse effect. You control three variables of this simple model: the atmospheric infrared emissivity (related to the greenhouse effect), the planetary albedo, and the energy output of the Sun. Remember, albedo of the planet indicates how much solar energy is reflected back to space. The atmospheric emissivity indicates how well the atmosphere emits and absorbs terrestrial infrared energy. The larger the emissivity (maximum of 1) the stronger the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere. Today's average solar constant is about 1370 Watts per square meter.

The y-axis represents altitude from the surface and the x-axis is the average temperature of a layer at a given latitude. The pink label indicates the effective temperature of the planet - which is the temperature the planet would have to be to balance the absorbed solar energy (e.g. that that is not reflected back to space.)

Questions and scenarios to consider
1) Why does the surface temperature change with a change in solar output?
2) How does changing the planet's albedo modify the planet's surface temperature.
3) If you increase the solar output, how can you decrease the surface temperature?
4) Why does surface temperature increase with increasing atmospheric infrared emission?

Instructions: (Listen to an audio version here)

You control three variables of this simple model: the atmospheric infrared emissivity (which is related to the greenhouse effect), the planetary albedo, and the energy output of the Sun. The atmospheric emissivity is the ratio of the radiant energy emitted per unit time per unit area by the atmosphere to the energy emitted by an ideal blackbody at the same temperature. As you vary these parameters the emission temperature of the planet and the temperatures of the surface and atmosphere change. All temperatures are plotted on a graph as a function of altitude.