上述基礎的機制可以用許多方式來量化,而且這些方式都不會影響基礎機制。靠近地面的大氣不會吸收熱輻射(但在對應溫室效應的波長段例外),大部份來自地表的熱損失是因為顯熱及潛熱的傳播。在大氣中的高度越高,因為水蒸氣(一種重要的溫室氣體)的濃度降低,因此其輻射的熱損失會越大。可以將温室效应視為在對流層中段加上一個「表面」,該表面的特性再根據氣溫垂直遞減率來調整。這個簡單的模型是假設溫度是在穩態的條件,不過實際的溫度會因為晝夜週期(英语:diurnal cycle)、季節週期及氣候的變化而變化。在晚上,因為大氣的放射率較低,大氣溫度會較低,但變化不大。晝夜溫度變化(英语:Diurnal temperature variation)會隨著高度而遞減。
水蒸氣以外,大氣中的氣體只會吸收某一頻段的能量對其他頻段的輻射是透明的。水蒸氣(藍色部份)和二氧化碳(粉紅色部份)的吸收頻譜在一些區域是重疊的。二氧化碳所造成的温室效应其實遠遠不如水蒸氣,但二氧化碳會吸收波長在12-15μm的能量,剛好落在地球表面熱輻射穿透水蒸氣到太空的波長窗口,加強了水蒸氣溫室效應不足之處,要比其他氣體重要 (Illustration NASA, Robert Rohde)[18]。
^Annex II Glossary. Intergovernmental Panange. [2016-08-20]. (原始内容存档于2018-11-03).
^A concise description of the greenhouse effect is given in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, "What is the Greenhouse Effect?" FAQ 1.3 - AR4 WGI Chapter 1: Historical Overview of Climate Change Science (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆), IIPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Chapter 1, page 115: "To balance the absorbed incoming [solar] energy, the Earth must, on average, radiate the same amount of energy back to space. Because the Earth is much colder than the Sun, it radiates at much longer wavelengths, primarily in the infrared part of the spectrum (see Figure 1). Much of this thermal radiation emitted by the land and ocean is absorbed by the atmosphere, including clouds, and reradiated back to Earth. This is called the greenhouse effect."
Stephen H. Schneider, in Geosphere-biosphere Interactions and Climate, Lennart O. Bengtsson and Claus U. Hammer, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-521-78238-4, pp. 90-91.
E. Claussen, V. A. Cochran, and D. P. Davis, Climate Change: Science, Strategies, & Solutions, University of Michigan, 2001. p. 373.
A. Allaby and M. Allaby, A Dictionary of Earth Sciences, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-19-280079-5, p. 244.
^Surtees, Lawrence. Bell, Alexander Graham. Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (编). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XV (1921–1930) online. University of Toronto Press. 2005.
^Grosvenor, Edwin S. and Morgan Wesson. Alexander Graham Bell: The Life and Times of the Man Who Invented the Telephone. New York: Harry N. Abrahms, Inc., 1997, p. 274, ISBN 0-8109-4005-1.
^Hansen J. A slippery slope: How much global warming constitutes "dangerous anthropogenic interference"?. Climatic Change. February 2005, 68 (333): 269–279. doi:10.1007/s10584-005-4135-0.
^Wood, R.W. Note on the Theory of the Greenhouse. Philosophical Magazine. 1909, 17: 319–320 [2016-08-19]. doi:10.1080/14786440208636602. (原始内容存档于2011-08-07). When exposed to sunlight the temperature rose gradually to 65 °C., the enclosure covered with the salt plate keeping a little ahead of the other because it transmitted the longer waves from the Sun, which were stopped by the glass. In order to eliminate this action the sunlight was first passed through a glass plate." "it is clear that the rock-salt plate is capable of transmitting practically all of it, while the glass plate stops it entirely. This shows us that the loss of temperature of the ground by radiation is very small in comparison to the loss by convection, in other words that we gain very little from the circumstance that the radiation is trapped.
^Oort, Abraham H.; Peixoto, José Pinto. Physics of climate. New York: American Institute of Physics. 1992. ISBN 0-88318-711-6. ...the name water vapor-greenhouse effect is actually a misnomer since heating in the usual greenhouse is due to the reduction of convection
Schelling, Thomas C. Greenhouse Effect. David R. Henderson (ed.) (编). Concise Encyclopedia of Economics 1st. Library of Economics and Liberty. 2002 [2016-08-11]. (原始内容存档于2021-04-10).OCLC317650570、50016270、163149563