[Arnt]

The key sentence from NASA: "High above Earth’s surface, near the edge of space, our atmosphere is losing heat energy." In other words, less heat is leaking up from surface level to the edge of space.

The heat is staying down here instead.

[luckylion]

Is there an explanation for that? It sounds counter intuitive that the heat wouldn't transfer and stay at the ground of all places. Or, to put it another way, has that always been the case, or is that a new thing, that the heat stays down here?

I have literally no knowledge about any of that, so don't take my question as anything but me not knowing and wondering, please.

[Arnt]

It's not a new thing, in principle, just something that's changing.

Some materials transmit heat better than others. If you change the chemical composition of the atmosphere, you change its heat transmission characteristics.

What we're doing to the atmosphere has several effects, one of them is trapping the heat from sunlight a little more efficiently. Of course that means that the temperature outside drops. If you insulate your house better it'll grow warmer inside and the outside walls will cool down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect BTW.