Is there any experimental data that confirms the existence of the greenhouse effect?

Question

Apparently, the greenhouse effect is a theory without any experimental verification. Can anyone provide data or a reference?

Answer 1

No.  There is no relation, no correlation between ghg's and temperatures.

CO2 has increased 4% since 1998, yet temperatures haven't increased at all, in fact temps have decreased some.

No one can tell you if it will be warmer or not even if co2 levels have increased.

Answer 2

Sure.  Tons of it.  Here's the long version, complete with hundreds of references to experimental data.  It's convinced 99+% of the scientists in the world, and won the Nobel Prize.  But feel free to disagree with it.  It's not a hard call for me to decide who to go with.

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report....

summarized at:

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report...

If won't read that, try:

Meehl, G.A., W.M. Washington, C.A. Ammann, J.M. Arblaster, T.M.L. Wigleym and C. Tebaldi (2004). "Combinations of Natural and Anthropogenic Forcings in Twentieth-Century Climate". Journal of Climate 17: 3721-3727

available at any good college library.

EDIT - Disagree.  They DO show experimental evidence.

Answer 3

Really? You don't think the greenhouse effect exists?

Well then, let's see what the planet should look like without one.

Because of Earth's distance from the sun, the flux of energy from the sun absorbed by the planet's surface comes out to approximately 240w/m^2 (given by the equation F = (S / 4) (1 - A) where S is the solar constant and F is the absorbed flux in watts per square meter and A is the albedo).

Knowing that, without any atmospheric absorption, Earth's temperature is described by the equation:

T = (F/σ)^1/4

Where T is the planet's "effective temperature," F is the planet's heat flux to space, and  ÃƒÂÃ‚ƒ is the Stephan-Boltzmann constant (with a value of 5.67 x 10-8 Watts/meter^2 Kelvin^4).

Plugging in the values, we come up with

T=255.07 Kelvin or -18ºC

Earth's observed temperature is 15ºC, which means it's 33ºC warmer than it should be.

Of course, this has been known by scientists since Fourier discovered the effect of the atmosphere on temperatures in 1824. But you already knew that.

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Edit: My calculations weren't for a planet with no atmosphere, they were for a planet with no atmospheric absorption (which wasn't made clear in my post above, see the edit). Since it's quite obvious that Earth has cloud cover, you have to include that albedo to get Earth's temperature without a greenhouse effect.

Of course, even *if* we remove cloud cover from the picture, your figure of 5.7ºC is still too cold.

And let's try and keep the personal attacks to a minimum, shall we?

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Edit: Here's an even simpler proof that a greenhouse effect exists:

Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane (along with several other gases) are transperent to downward shortwave radiation from the sun, and opaque to upward longwave radiation from Earth. These gases are present in the atmosphere. Therefore a greenhouse effect exists.

QED, as they say.

Answer 4

What??

It can be easily tested in a lab, even by little kids:

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/esi/1998...

There's nothing theoretical about it.

http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102...

Answer 5

the greenhouse effect is a scientific fact -the underlying principle is observable in a lab using IR spectroscopy.

edit

when a ghg absorbs an infrared photon it is excited to higher vibrational levels - when it relaxes it emits the photon in a random direction - this is the basic principle behind the greenhouse effect.

Answer 6

A greenhouse comes to mind.

Answer 7

Look im on your side, I dont think carbon is warming the atmosphere too, since they cant verify it with any experimentation.

  Dont forget water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the most important and effective in our atmosphere.

Are you serious?  Hmm,  lets do an experiment.  It isnt 5.8 degrees celcius year round, therefore, the greenhouse effect exists.  Hmm that was easy.  

How about another experiment.  It ISNT -200 degrees at night, therefore, the greenhouse effect (due to water vapor) exists!

And I believe life would have not evolved the way it did if there was no greenhouse effect.  Life needs WATER TO EXIST IN MOST CASES.  No greenhouse effect means most water, if not all would stay in a solid state.  But you already knew that.

I think you are confusing Bob a little bit.  When you talk about the greenhouse effect, it refers to ALL greenhouse gases, especially water.  Bob is soo stuck on global warming that he is only thinking about carbon, and its ability as a greenhouse gas.  You need to narrow your question down, or state that you mean ALLL greenhouse gases.

I do agree with you on venus though.  Most light is reflected from venus, the heat there is caused primarily by the weight/pressure of the atmosphere, not the warming of the carbon dioxide by the sun.

Answer 8

The greenhouse effect is well understood, and was first explained by Joseph Fourier about 200 years ago. There are simple experiments that can be conducted to illustrate this effect. Send infrared radiation through a tube filled with carbon dioxide and you will see that less radiation comes out the other end. CO2 and other greenhouse gases absorb outgoing infrared radiations. Since engery can not be created or destroyed, the absorbed radiation generates heat. This can also be measured.

Answer 9

Here's some fun websites Bob might know of:

http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2007/03/co...

http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/