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Solid-State Greenhouse Effect

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Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

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A radiative process occurring in a layer made of material partly transparent to solar radiation (ice or snow, for instance) and resulting in temperature in the interior or at the bottom of the layer warmer than at its surface. It results from the fact that such a layer is radiatively cooled at its surface by thermal infrared emission, but heated below the surface by absorption of solar radiation. Such a process can allow the melting of ice below the surface even if surface temperatures are below freezing.

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Correspondence to Francois Forget .

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Forget, F. (2011). Solid-State Greenhouse Effect. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_1466

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