Greenhouse Effect · Paper 1 — Free Physics HL Practice Questions

Of the $340 \ \text{W m}^{-2}$ of solar radiation incident at the top of the atmosphere, $100 \ \text{W m}^{-2}$ is reflected back to space and $80 \ \text{W m}^{-2}$ is absorbed by the atmosphere. What is the intensity of solar radiation absorbed by Earth's surface?

The graph shows the solar irradiance spectrum measured at the top of Earth's atmosphere. The dashed curve is theoretical blackbody spectrum for a surface temperature of $5800 \text{ K}$. The solid curve is the measured spectrum. The narrow dips where the solid curve falls below the dashed curve are most directly caused by which process?

The graph shows two curves of solar radiation intensity versus wavelength: one measured at the top of the atmosphere and one measured at sea level. The area under the sea-level curve is 70% of the area under the top-of-atmosphere curve. Assuming no radiation is reflected by the atmosphere, what is the average absorptivity of the atmosphere for solar radiation?

Earth's surface absorbs $168 \ \text{W m}^{-2}$ of solar radiation and $324 \ \text{W m}^{-2}$ of downwelling longwave radiation from the atmosphere. The surface emits $390 \ \text{W m}^{-2}$ of upwelling longwave radiation. What is the net power gain per unit area of the surface?