Earth ozone layer due to the subsequent conversion of atmospheric into. The ozone layer blocks ultraviolet solar radiation, permitting life on land. Other atmospheric functions important to life include transporting water vapor, providing useful gases, causing small meteors to burn up before they strike the surface, and moderating temperature. This last phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect: trace molecules within the atmosphere serve to capture thermal energy emitted from the ground, thereby raising the average temperature. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone are the primary greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Without this heat-retention effect, the average surface
Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere dioxide is often mentioned in the context of its increased influence as a greenhouse gas since the pre-industrial (1750) era. In the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report the increase in CO was estimated to be responsible for 1.82 W·m of the 2.63 W·m change in radiative forcing on Earth (about 70%). The concept of atmospheric CO increasing ground temperature was first published by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. The increased radiative forcing due to increased CO in the Earth's atmosphere is based on the physical properties of CO and the non-saturated absorption windows where CO absorbs outgoing long-wave energy. Atmospheric carbon dioxide