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Unit 5 Earth’s Atmosphere

Unit 5 Earth’s Atmosphere. Why is it so important to life on earth?. Makeup of the Atmosphere. Earth's early atmosphere, produced by erupting volcanoes, contained nitrogen and carbon dioxide, but little oxygen.

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Unit 5 Earth’s Atmosphere

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  1. Unit 5Earth’s Atmosphere Why is it so important to life on earth?

  2. Makeup of the Atmosphere • Earth's early atmosphere, produced by erupting volcanoes, contained nitrogen and carbon dioxide, but little oxygen. • Then, more than 2 billion years ago, Earth's early organisms released oxygen into the atmosphere as they made food with the aid of sunlight.

  3. Makeup of the Atmosphere • Eventually, a layer rich in ozone (O3) that protects Earth from the Sun's harmful rays formed in the upper atmosphere. • This protective layer eventually allowed green plants to flourish all over Earth, releasing even more oxygen.

  4. Atmospheric Composition Dry air is composed of the following gases: Nitrogen (N2) = 78% Oxygen (O2) = 21% Argon (Ar) = less than 1% Trace Gases Dust, bacteria, and other particulates

  5. Atmospheric Composition • Trace Gases • Gases that are only found by examining a million or billion air molecules • Examples include: • Carbon Dioxide (CO2) = 340 ppmv • Neon (Ne) = 18 ppmv • Helium (He) = 5 ppmv • Methane (CH4) = 2 ppmv • Hydrogen (H2) = 0.5 ppmv

  6. Atmospheric Composition • The dry air components in the air are well-mixed, meaning they do not vary widely with location or time at the surface. • Water vapor (H2O) is a variable gas. You will see it depends on temperature and the availability of liquid water. • A volume of air can have between 0% and 4% water vapor, and this varies both in time and space.

  7. Earth’s atmosphere is made up of 5 main layers…

  8. The Science Monkey Took Earth MEANS…. Troposphere Stratosphere Mesosphere Thermosphere Exosphere THE FIVE LAYERS OF THE EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE FROM THE EARTH OUT! How am I going to remember that…

  9. Atmospheric Layers • 5 layers are defined by constant trends in average air temperature • Troposphere • Tropopause • 2. Stratosphere • Stratopause • 3. Mesosphere • Mesopause • 4. Thermosphere • 5. Exosphere

  10. Why is the atmosphere divided into 5 different layers? • The atmosphere is not uniform, its properties change with altitude. • Two properties change with altitude, the AIR PRESSURE and the AIR TEMPERATURE

  11. The first layer of the atmosphere is the… TROPOSPHERE • The layer of the atmosphere nearest to earth. • 0km to 16km. (about 10 miles) • All weather happens in the troposphere. • The temperature drops as the altitude increases.

  12. The second layer of the atmosphere is the… STRATOSPHERE • 16km to 50 km. (31 miles) • The temperature goes up with altitude. • Most jets fly in this layer. • The protective ozone is at the top of the atmosphere • Rivers of air, called Jet Streams, can be found at the base of this layer.

  13. The third layer of the atmosphere is the… MESOSPHERE • 50km to 90km. (56 miles) • Temperature drops with altitude. • The coldest layer of the atmosphere. • Meteors burn up in this layer.

  14. The fourth layer of the atmosphere is the… THERMOSPHERE • 90km to 300km. (186 miles) • Temperature goes up with altitude. • Hottest layer of the atmosphere. • Curtains of light called auroras occur in this layer. • The ionosphere is found in the thermosphere. This is the component of the thermosphere that makes the auroras.

  15. The last layer of the atmosphere is the… EXOSPHERE • The outermost layer of the atmosphere. • The temperature goes up with altitude. • Satellites orbit earth in the exosphere.

  16. Pressure & Density Gravity pulls gases toward earth's surface. The amount of force exerted Over an area of surface is called Air pressure! Air Density is The number of air Molecules in a given Space (volume)

  17. How is our atmosphere heated? • Most insolation goes straight through our atmosphere right to the Earth’s surface. • The surface of the Earth heats up and therefore heats our atmosphere.

  18. How does the energy move from the surface to the atmosphere? • 1. Conduction • 2. Convection • 3. Radiation

  19. CONVECTION OCCURS IN THE ATMOSPHERE

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