🧪 Climate Greenhouse Effect Simulation

This simulation visually represents the process by which greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, built on the exact "N-layer grey atmosphere" radiative-transfer model used to introduce planetary energy balance. A glowing ground plane absorbs incoming sunlight and re-radiates infrared photons upward; each translucent atmospheric layer stacked above it can absorb and re-emit those photons up or down, delaying their escape to space. Sliders control how many absorbing layers are present (standing in for greenhouse-gas concentration), the incoming solar constant, and the planet's albedo, while live readouts solve the layer-by-layer Stefan–Boltzmann equilibrium equations to show the no-atmosphere effective temperature, the resulting surface temperature, and the greenhouse warming between them — demonstrating the fundamental principles of radiative transfer and their role in regulating planetary temperatures.