The greenhouse effect is the process in which the emission of infared radiation by the atmosphere warms a planet's surface. The name comes from an incorrect analogy with the warming of air inside a greenhouse compared to the air outside the greenhouse. The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824 and first investigated quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896.

The Earth's average surface temperature of 15 °C  is about 33 °C warmer than it would be without the greenhouse effect. Global Warming, a recent warming of the Earth's lower atmosphere, is believed to be the result of an enhanced greenhouse effect due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In addition to the Earth, Mars and Venus have greenhouse effects.
 GREENHOUSE GASES AND GREENHOUSE EFFECT

Greenhouse gases are the gases present in the atmosphere which reduce the loss of heat into space and therefore contribute to global temperatures through the Greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases are essential to maintaining the temperature of the earth; without them the planet would be so cold as to be uninhabitable. Likewise, an excess of greenhouse gases can raise the temperature of the planet to unlivable levels. The term greenhouse gas is applied to, in order of relative abundance: water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFCs. Greenhouse gases are produced by many natural and industrial processes, which currently result in CO₂ levels of 380 ppmv in the atmosphere. Based on ice-core samples and records current levels of CO₂ are approximately 100 ppmv higher than during pre-industrial times, when direct human influence was negligible.

When sunlight reaches the surface of the Earth, some of it is absorbed and warms the surface. Because the Earth's surface is much cooler than the sun, it radiates energy at much longer wavelengths than the sun does, peaking in the infared at about 10µm. The atmosphere absorbs these longer wavelengths more effectively than it does the shorter wavelengths from the sun. The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the atmosphere; the atmosphere also is warmed by transfer of sensible and latent heat from the surface. Greenhouse gases also emit longwave radiation both upward to space and downward to the surface. The downward part of this longwave radiation emitted by the atmosphere is the "greenhouse effect." The term is a misnomer, as this process is not the mechanism that warms greenhouses.

  
                      *INFO FROM WIKIPEDIA*

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