Re: When the suns radiant energy hits earth what is the by product.

More radiant energy!

When sunlight (some of which you can see, and some of which you can't) hits Earth, it is :
a) reflected
b) scattered
c) absorbed
d) all of the above
The answer, of course, is D, all of the above!

Reflected light is reflected right back out into space, that is the light that makes the Earth so bright when seen from the moon:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/earth/apollo08_earthrise.jpg

Scattered light can be scattered down, or sideways, or back out into space. The hazy look of Earth's atmosphere in these photos: http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/EarthObservatory/ViewingEarth%27sLimb.htm is caused by scattered light.

Light that is absorbed, either by the atmosphere, the oceans, or the land, makes the Earth warmer. The warmer Earth then radiates this energy back into space, but at a longer wavelength than your eyes can see. This long-wavelength "by-product" keeps the Earth from continually getting hotter as more energy arrives from the Sun.

Some of the energy released by the land and oceans is captured again by the atmosphere before it gets out to space: this is why Earth is much warmer than the moon, and is called the "greenhouse effect."