Graph: Average Temperature (°C) Over Simulation Time
☀ Visible solar radiation freely passes through the atmosphere and warms the Earth's surface.
🌡 Heated surface emits heat back in the form of infrared rays.
CO₂ molecules and other greenhouse gases absorb and partially reflect this
infrared radiation back to the surface — that's what is known asgreenhouse effect.
🌱 Within natural limits this is beneficial and necessary: without greenhouse gases the Earth's average temperature would be around −18 °C, making the planet uninhabitable in its current form. The problem arises when CO₂ concentration sharply rises above the natural balance, enhancing heat retention and increasing the average temperature.
WHAT DOES THE SIMULATION SHOW?
Yellow particles — sunlight traveling to Earth. Some are reflected back into space (white), while the rest is absorbed by the surface and warms it up.
The warmed surface radiates heat as infrared rays (orange-red).
At low CO₂ levels, most of them tend to freely escape through the atmospheric layer into space.
At high CO₂ levels, a significant part is reflected back to the surface by the atmospheric layer (dark-red), trapping heat — the planet warms up more strongly. 🌡