global warming potential
Sign in to saveAlso known as GWP, Estimate of how an atmospheric gas affects global climate change
estimate of how an atmospheric gas affects global climate change
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Comparison of global warming potential of three greenhouse gases over a 100-year period (GWP-100) per ton: Perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), nitrous oxide and methane, compared to carbon dioxide (the latter is the reference value, therefore it has a GWP of one). PFTBA is here used as an example of a larger group of potent fluorinated greenhouse gases. Fluorinated hydrocarbons combined contribute about 10% to global warming.
Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere over a specific time period, relative to carbon dioxide (CO2). It is a dimensionless quantity expressed as a multiple of warming caused by the same mass of CO2. Therefore, by definition CO2 has a GWP of 1. For other gases it depends on how strongly the gas absorbs thermal radiation, how quickly the gas leaves the atmosphere, and the time frame considered.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “global warming potential” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.