Is a question I have been asking myself recently. My guess was "yes, of course it does, that's why warm air feels warm" but it's always best to Google this sort of thing.
Turns out, it does:
The bottom line here is pretty simple. After doing some sky observing, [people at the Mount Wilson Observatory and Washburn Observatory] found a large IR interference from the open sky. This was chased back to a Nitrogen band at 10,300 Angstroms. It varies over the night, dimming as the sky cools, and increases again just before sunrise. It varies with zenith angle too. It is strong and bright.
So my questions are simple and few:
1) Is it not the case that “That which emits, absorbs” at the same band?
2) Does that not mean Nitrogen is an infrared absorber and emitter?
3) Does that not mean Nitrogen fits the definition of a “greenhouse gas”? (wrong as the term may be).
4) Doesn’t this kind of screw up the whole “Only CO2 Matters!” mantra? (That already ignores water vapor…)
That’s really the whole thrust of this posting. IF Nitrogen (not to mention all its ions and N3 and atomic forms) has a bunch of IR bands, doesn’t that kind of play Hob with the whole CO2 thesis? And there is ample evidence for Nitrogen having a bunch of IR bands.