Final answer:
The Global Warming Potential (GWP) measures a greenhouse gas's ability to trap heat compared to CO2, which has a GWP of 1. Methane has a GWP of 28, nitrous oxide 298, and synthetic fluorinated gases have GWPs in the thousands.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a measure that compares the amount of heat trapped by a certain mass of a greenhouse gas to the amount of heat trapped by a similar mass of carbon dioxide. The GWP is a way to gauge the effect of different gases in terms of how much they contribute to global warming over a specific time period. Since carbon dioxide is the most prevalent greenhouse gas and has a significant impact on global warming, it is assigned a GWP of 1 as a baseline for comparison. Other gases can have much higher GWP values, such as methane (CH4), which has a GWP of approximately 28, and nitrous oxide (N2O), which has a GWP of about 298. The synthetic fluorinated gases have the highest GWP values, often in the thousands, because of their very long residence times in the atmosphere.