...The Earth's atmospheric air is a colorless, odorless and tasteless mixture of gases consisting mostly of nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2). It is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans and all other animals breathe in order to obtain the oxygen needed to sustain life. The Earth's atmosphere not only contains the air we breathe, it also holds clouds of moisture (water vapor) that become the water we drink. Furthermore, it protects us from meteors and harmful solar radiation and warms the Earth's surface by heat retention. In effect, the atmosphere is an envelope that protects all life on Earth. The air may contain pollutants that originate from a variety of sources such as our industries and our vehicles, and can directly or indirectly affect our health and the natural environment. These effects may be experienced near the sources of air pollution and some air pollutants may be transported long distances by the wind, even across political boundaries. Composition of the atmospheric air The adjacent table lists the concentration of fourteen gases present in filtered dry air. Two of the gases, nitrogen and oxygen make up 99.03 percent of the clean, dry air. The other listed gases total to 0.97 percent. Note the amounts of greenhouse gases that are present: water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Additional gases (not listed in the table) are also present in very minute amounts. The atmospheric air is rarely, if ever, dry. Water vapor is nearly always...
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...Assignment 1 1. What are greenhouse gases and why do they affect the climate? At what wavelength band(s) of the electromagnetic spectrum do they absorb radiation? In your answer, give three examples of greenhouse gases and their wavelengths of absorption. Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that allow light through but block infrared radiation that is reflected off of Earth’s surface, not allowing the heat to escape and thus causing long term heating effects on our climate. The greenhouse gases absorb some incoming light but the greenhouse effect is cause by the absorption of infrared radiation on its way out to space. Three greenhouse gases are water vapour methane and carbon dioxide. Water vapour has its strongest absorption at wavelengths of 2.9, 1.95, 1.45, but also absorbs at many other wavelengths. Methane absorbs radiation between 1.41-4.24 micrometers whereas carbon dioxide absorbs between 14-16 micrometers. 2. An environmental engineer invents a new machine that removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air using hydrogen fuel cells. In the process, however, a large amount of water vapour (H2O) is released back to the atmosphere. Explain three plausible impacts that this machine could have on the global climate (some of which may counteract each other). The first effect would be the climate cooling. The removal of the carbon dioxide means that there would be less greenhouses gases and this would result in less radiation being trapped thus causing the...
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...Atmosphere- a blanket of air that surrounds the earth Function of the atmosphere 1. It insulates us so that we don’t freeze at night. 2. Its ozone layer protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. 3. It also contains the carbon dioxide needed by plants for photosynthesis, and the oxygen we need to breathe. Layers of the atmosphere Troposphere • Layer closest to the Earth. • Where all weather occurs • The higher you go in the Troposphere the colder it gets. • The only layer of the atmosphere where life is possible. • Extends 5-10 kms up from the Earth’s surface. Stratosphere • Second layer of the atmosphere. • Extends from 10-50 kms above the Earth’s surface. • Temperatures remain fairly constant. • Very calm.....NO WEATHER! • Special form of oxygen-OZONE, which protects us from harmful UV rays. • Planes fly here, birds do not! Mesosphere ❑ Air here is very cold and thin ❑ Extends to a height of 80 kms ❑ Meteorites are burnt out at this layer Thermosphere • Found between 80 km and 700 kms • Space shuttles fly in this area. • Aurora lights are found here Terms to remember ▪ Meteorology - is the study of the entire atmosphere including weather ▪ Weather - is the present state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place. ▪ Weather forecast – the prediction about the weather that will be experienced a short period of time...
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...Discuss The Layers And Composition Of The Atmosphere And The Effect Each Has On Climate? The Earth's atmosphere contains several different layers that can be defined according to air temperature. According to temperature, the atmosphere contains four different layers. The first layer is called the troposphere. The depth of this layer varies from about 8 to 16 kilometers. Greatest depths occur at the tropics where warm temperatures causes vertical expansion of the lower atmosphere. From the tropics to the Earth's polar regions the troposphere becomes gradually thinner. The depth of this layer at the poles is roughly half as thick when compared to the tropics. Average depth of the troposphere is approximately 11 kilometers. About 80 % of the total mass of the atmosphere is contained in troposphere. It is also the layer where the majority of our weather occurs. Maximum air temperature also occurs near the Earth's surface in this layer. With increasing height, air temperature drops uniformly with altitude at a rate of approximately 6.5° Celsius per 1000 meters. This phenomenon is commonly called the Environmental Lapse Rate. At an average temperature of -56.5° Celsius, the top of the troposphere is reached. At the upper edge of the troposphere is a narrow transition zone known as the tropopause. The Greenhouse Effect: Heat from the Sun warms the Earth's surface but most of it is radiated and sent back into space. Water vapour and carbon dioxide in the troposphere trap some of this...
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...With the aid of a diagram, describe the structure of the atmosphere. (8 marks) The atmosphere is an area of gases, with some solids and liquids surrounding the earth or another planet. The troposphere is the first layer of gases surrounding the earth which extends 11km from the earth’s surface. In this layer most weather processes take place as well as it having the hottest temperature as solar radiation heats up the earth’s surface. The second layer is the stratosphere (25-30km), this zone has a steady increase in temperature (temperature inversion) from the ozone layer absorbing the solar radiation which would otherwise be very harmful the humans (e.g. uv). The layer above the stratosphere is the mesosphere. In the zone of the atmosphere the temperature rapidly decline (-90C) due to the fact there is no water vapour or dust to absorb the radiation. The mesosphere also has very strong winds which can exceed 3,00km/hr. After the Mesosphere comes the Thermosphere. This layer is named so as there is an increase in temperature resulting from the absorption of UV radiation by atomic oxygen found at this altitude. The exosphere is the uppermost region of Earth's atmosphere as it gradually fades into the vacuum of space. Air in the exosphere is extremely thin - in many ways it is almost the same as the airless void of outer space where molecules are gravitationally bound to that body, but where the density is too low for them to behave as a...
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...Atmosphere of your home Home, the Foundation of Society: Society is composed of families, and is what the heads of families make it. Out of the heart are”the issues of life”, and the heart of the community, of the church, and of the nation is the household. The well-being of society, the success of the church, the prosperity of the nation, depends upon home influences. The elevation or deterioration of the future of society will be determined by the manners and morals of the youth growing up around us. As the youth are educated, and as their characters are molded in their childhood to virtuous habits, self-control, and temperance, so will their influence be upon society, If they are left unenlightened and uncontrolled, and as the result become self-willed, intemperate in appetite and passion, so will be their future influence in molding society. The company which the young now keep, the habits they now from, and the principles they now adopt are the index to the state of society for years to come. Bit of Heaven on Earth: Home should be made all that the world implies. It should be a little heaven upon the earth, a place where the affections are cultivated instead of being studiously repressed. Our happiness depends upon this cultivation of love, sympathy, and true courtesy to one another. To a large extend parents create the atmosphere of the home circle, and when there is disagreement between father and mother, the children partake of the same spirit. Make your home atmosphere...
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...EXOPLANET ATMOSPHERES Year 3 Term 2 Essay Project for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Physics with Theoretical Physics Ho Yin Desmond YUEN Department of Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom Submitted Version: Summer Term, 4th May 2015 ABSTRACT The objective in studying exoplanet atmospheres is to understand their atmospheric composition and properties, thus, to deduce the planets’ habitability. Favoured by their close proximity, studying the atmospheres within our own Solar System and seeking for resemblance is a fundamental first step before we proceed off to extra-solar systems. While the ultimate goal of detecting a true Earth twin is some time off, we are busy trying to understand the atmospheres of hot Jupiters and hot Neptunes through observing primary and secondary transits of these exoplanets. During the past decade, conflicting observations between ground- and space-based facilities, different methods of data treatment, and resolving limitations of measuring instruments have been a source of debate in the astronomy community. Controversies over the atmospheres of two of the most extensively studied exoplanets, HD 189733b and GJ 436b, are discussed here. Through a series of investigation and evaluation, the hot Jupiter, HD 189733b, is believed to possess a carbon-monoxide-rich atmosphere with a sodium-abundant troposphere, topped with high-altitude haze. The hot Neptune...
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...Without our atmosphere, there would be no life on earth. Two gases make up the bulk of the earth's atmosphere: nitrogen (78%), and oxygen (21%). Argon, carbon dioxide and various trace gases make up the remainder. Scientists divided the atmosphere into four layers according to temperature: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. The temperature drops as we go up through the troposphere, but it rises as we move through the next layer, the stratosphere. The farther away from earth, the thinner the atmosphere gets. There are many layers that make up the Atmosphere. The Exosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere, Stratosphere, and the Troposphere. The Exosphere is the outermost layer of the Atmosphere. It extends from the top of the thermosphere to 6,200 miles above the earth. In this layer, atoms and molecules escape into space and satellites orbit the earth. At the bottom of the exosphere is the Thermopause located around 375 miles above the earth. The Thermosphere is the next layer. It is between about 53 miles and 375 miles. This layer is known as the upper atmosphere. While still extremely thin, the gasses of the thermosphere become increasingly more dense as one descends toward the earth. Incoming high energy ultraviolet and x-ray radiation from the sun begins to be absorbed by the molecules in this layer and causes a large temperature increase. Because of this absorption, the temperature increases with height. From as low as -184 degrees at the bottom of this...
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...Earth's atmosphere is a unique reservoir of gases, the product of nearly 5 billion years of development. It sustains us and protects us from hostile radiation and particles from the Sun and beyond-the atmosphere serves as an efficient filter.When astronauts work in space, they must wear a bulky spacesuit that does everything to sustain and protect them that the atmosphere does for us all the time.Atmosphere is a gaseous mixture of ancient origin, the sum of all the exhalations and inhalations of life on Earth throughout time. The principal substance of this atmosphere is air, the medium of life as well as a major industrial and chemical raw material. Air is a simple mixture of gases that is naturally odorless, colorless, tasteless, and formless, blended so thoroughly that it behaves as if it were a single gas ATMOSPHERIC PROFILE: We consider the top of our atmosphere to be around 480 km (300 mi) above Earth's surface, the same altitude we use for measuring the solar constant and insolation receipt. Beyond that altitude, the atmosphere is rarefied (nearly a vacuum) and is called the exosphere, which means "outer sphere." It contains scarce lightweight hydrogen and helium atoms, weakly bound by gravity as far as 32,000 km (20,000 mi) from Earth.Earth's modern atmosphere is in a series of imperfectly shaped concentric "shells" or "spheres" that grade into one another, all bound to the planet by gravity.As critical as the atmosphere is to us, it represents only...
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...In the following I will discuss the atmosphere of the late Cretaceous (end of the dinosaur era) and how it may have contributed to the extinction events that occurred at the end of this era. I will also discuss how scientists determine the composition of ancient atmospheres. The Cretaceous period was from 145 to 65.5 million years ago. You had the early cretaceous epoch and the late cretaceous epoch. Mass extinction happened and comprised of 80-90% of marine species and 85% of land species, including the dinosaurs. About half of all life-forms died out, including the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, ammonites, and many families of fish, snails, sponges, sea urchins (Benton, 2003). The meteor impact inhibited photosynthesis. The atmosphere was filled with dust cloud which blocked the sunlight for at least a year. Sulfuric acid was injected into the stratosphere. This also created a reduction in sunlight to the Earth by 20%. Because the atmosphere was filled with this acid and dust clouds the plant life and small creatures would die off. It takes at least 10 years for the atmosphere to clear itself of these pollutants. An impact such as this can also produce acid rain. There are many animals that can not handle acid rain. Therefore, this would also play a part in extinction of species. (www.tulane.edu). When it comes to how scientists determine the composition of ancient atmospheres, I found the following; “Ages of ice samples found on the Earth cover a span approaching...
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...The greenhouse effect is an natural way to response the sun's rays ( stråling) shining. The atmosphere keeps lots of warmth around the earth, and therefore the greenhouse effect is still growing, because we're leaking too much CO2 aka carbon diioxid. out in the atmosphere. Whats to worry about? As we continue to pollute the atmosphere ith more and mroe chemicals we are keeping too much of the sun's warmth in the atmosphere. The global temperature is growing. In the north we cant feel the greenhouse effect, but if we're looking at fx Africa its very clear that the greenhouse effect is affecting us. When the global temperatur is growing, the ice poles is melting, which means that some country will experience that their countries will be under water one day. The greeenhouse effect is basically a layer of all kind of gasses, but mainly Carbondioxid. When the sun sents rays towards the earth, the earth will have a hard time to sent it back to the atmosphere since the layer of the gasses is preventing the rays from leaving the earths atmosphere. The atmosphere keeps lots of warmth around the earth, and therefore the greenhouse effect is still growing, because we're leaking too much CO2 aka carbon diioxid. What could we do about? We could forexeample take the bika instead of the car, busses, trains and so on. We could also remember to turn off the lights, after were going out from a room. We could try to recycle more than we do. We could stop taking a very...
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...occurring every day all across the Earth, involving radiation the planet receives from space and the radiation that's reflected back out to space. Enormous amounts of radiation, primarily from the sun strikes the Earth's atmosphere in the form of visible light, ultraviolet, infrared and other types of radiation that are invisible to the human eye. About 30 percent of the radiation striking Earth's atmosphere is immediately reflected back out to space by clouds, ice, snow, sand and other reflective surfaces, according to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The remaining 70 percent of incoming solar radiation is absorbed by the oceans, the land and the atmosphere. As they heat up, the oceans, land and atmosphere release heat in the form of infrared thermal radiation, which passes out of the atmosphere and into space. It is this equilibrium of incoming and outgoing radiation that makes the Earth habitable. Without this balance, the greenhouse effect sets in. Definition Greenhouse Effect: The warming of the atmosphere due to the increased amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides and methane. These gases form a blanket over the Earth, trapping the energy or heat from the sun and preventing it from leaving the atmosphere. A greenhouse works in much the same way-Incoming UV radiation easily passes through the glass walls of a greenhouse and is absorbed by the plants and hard surfaces inside. Weaker Infrared radiation, however, has difficulty...
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...life by the cycles of The Greenhouse Effect. The Greenhouse Effect has made the earth an environment for supporting life through the cycling of energy from the sun via short-wave radiation, which heats the earths surface, then is released into the atmopshere as long-wave radiation. This cycle is made possible by the prescence of Greenhouse gases, which redside in the earths atmopshere, and absorb most of the long-wave radiation given off by the earth, with the remainder being expelled into space. This process cycles the heat from the sun around the earths atmosphere and a climate is the result, without this circulation of energy life cannot exist. Greenhouse gasses absorb long-wave solar radiation, enabling the Greenhouse Effect. The main gasses are Water Vapour H2O (clouds), Carbon Dioxide CO2, Methane CH4 and Nitrous Oxide, with water vapour being the most abundant. The concentrations of these gasses in the atmosphere have a direct influence over the climate, and through natural increases and...
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...warming affects all parts of the earth and travels right around in its rotation. The sun is a part of why the earth has been rising in temperatures causing glaciers to melt and the rising of our oceans water levels. This forces wild life to fight to survive and migrate around finding new homes to live in. Humans are the biggest cause to global warming over the past 100 plus years. Greenhouses gases are released into the atmosphere letting light through but trapping heat. Sun light comes down to the earth where it can be absorbed and releases heat back into atmosphere. Greenhouses gases then trapping some of the heat while the rest escapes into space causing the “Greenhouse Effect”. The more greenhouses gases we have the more heat will be trapped in our atmosphere enhancing global warming to the max. The greenhouse effect has been known about for almost hundred years but was thought of differently at that time. “Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect since 1824, when Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth would be much colder if it had no atmosphere” (http://environment.nationalgeographic.com). It was known that these greenhouse gases helps stabile...
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...Carmichael SCI245 December 16, 2009 Aimee Pellet Study of the Earth Breaking down a large complex system into smaller parts is called the system approach. The system approach allows for each element that makes up the earth to be focused on separately. Each unit of the Earth system is broken down further into subsystems known as: the Lithosphere, the Biosphere, the Atmosphere, and the Hydrosphere. Each of these elements performs a certain function that is dependent on the other. The Lithosphere is the Earth’s outermost rocker layer. The Biosphere consists of recently decayed and living organisms on Earth’s surface. The Atmosphere is the gases that surround the Earth. The Hydrosphere contains all of the earth’s water and ice, above and below the surface. Losing any of these systems would have a depleting effect on the earth as we know it. There is a cycle to how these systems work, plants gain nutrients from the lithosphere and then these nutrients are incorporated back into the biosphere. When the plants die some of the material left behind is released into the atmosphere and the rest goes back into the lithosphere. Each element provides what is needed to continue the cycle and the cycle is a constant. People depend on each subsystem in the same way that the earth depends on these systems to continue. The lithosphere is important because “There are high mountains ranges like the Rockies and Andes, huge plains like those in Texas, Iowa and Brazil...
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