Can the suns inflared rays be obsorbed by the earth?

Question

I know that the suns light waves can be obzorbed but what about the ray that bounce off the atmophere?

Answer 1

Some of the infrared rays are reflected by the atmosphere (that's why the sky is blue) but the sun is so strong that most of it does reach us directly.

You can feel it on your skin when you hold your hand towards the sunlight. If the heat was just coming from the atmosphere itself your whole hand would feel the same temperature not just the part facing the sun.

A lot of infrared is absorbed by the earth and then re-radiated out into space during the night. There it disappears until it hits another object in space.

Answer 2

The earth can absorb infrared radiation. However, the atmosphere absorbs a lot of infrared radiation, with a window at I think 10 micrometer wavelength. Mostly it is just the visible light that hits the earth's surface directly from the sun because most gases in the atmosphere do not absorb visible light. Most of the infrared radiation absorbed by the earth comes from this process:
The earth absorbs visible light from the sun.
The earth radiates infrared light.
The atmosphere (including clouds) absorb some of this infrared radiation.
The atmosphere (clouds) reemit this infrared radiation in all direction.
The earth absorbs some of the infrared radiation emitted by the atmosphere/clouds.

Answer 3

If the radiation bounces off the atmosphere, then it doesn't reach the earth, thus the earth cannot absorb the radiation...

However, the only reason we feel heat from the sun is because the earth radiates the energy it receives from the sun and warms the atmosphere.