Atmosphere and Air Pressure | Period 2

What are the Gasses Our Atmosphere?

78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% other gases

What is a Mercury barometer?

A barometer in which the weight of a column of mercury in a glass tube with a sealed top is balanced against that of the atmosphere pressing on an exposed cistern of mercury at the base of the mercury column, the height of the column varying with atmospheric pressure.

What is Ozone

A colorless unstable toxic gas with a pungent odor and powerful oxidizing properties, formed from oxygen by electrical discharges or ultraviolet light. It differs from normal oxygen (O2) in having three atoms in its molecule (O3).

What are the 4 minor layers of the atmosphere?

Four Main Layers: Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere. Four Minor Layers: Ozonosphere, Ionosphere, Exosphere, Magnetosphere. Ionosphere and Exosphere are part of the Thermosphere. Troposphere is most important because we live in it!

What is Altitude/Elevation?

Height of an object above Earth's surface.

What happens to air pressure as altitude increases in the troposphere?

In the layer above the troposphere, the stratosphere, temperature rises with increasing altitude. In the stratosphere, the air is heated from above by ultraviolet "light" which is absorbed by ozone molecules in the air. The tropopause is the boundary between the troposphere (below) and the stratosphere (above).

How cold is the exosphere?

It is also the first layer to come into contact and protect the earth from meteors, asteroids, and cosmic rays. The temperature in the exosphere varies greatly and can range from 0 to over 1700 degrees Celsius. It is colder at night and much hotter during the day.

Who is Mr. Baker?

One super cool guy

At what altitude does air start to thin?

Possibly, but if you're up in the mountains, you're more likely experiencing altitude sickness. When you travel to a place above about 8,000 feet, your body starts telling you there's something seriously wrong with the air up there. The "thin" air at high altitudes has considerably less oxygen and pressure.

What is Density

The Density Calculator uses the formula d=m/V, or density (d) is equal to mass (m) divided by volume (V). The calculator can use any two of the values to calculate the third. Density is defined as mass per unit volume.

What is the troposphere made of?

The air is densest in this lowest layer. In fact, the troposphere contains three-quarters of the mass of the entire atmosphere. The air here is 78% nitrogen and 21%oxygen. The last 1% is made of argon, water vapor, and carbon dioxide.

Why it is colder at a higher altitude?

The reason it's actually colder is because, as you go up in the atmosphere, the Earth's atmosphere feels less pressure the higher up you go. So as the gas in the atmosphere rises it feels less pressure, which makes it expand. When the gas expands it does some work.

What does the thermosphere do for us?

The thermosphere (or the upper atmosphere) is the height region above 85 km, while the region between the tropopause and the mesopause is the middle atmosphere (stratosphere and mesosphere) where absorption of solar UV radiation generates the temperature maximum near 45 km altitude and causes the ozone layer.

What is Air Pressure?

The weight of a column of air pushing down on an area. Units used to measure air pressure are millibars and inches of mercury.

What happens to the density of air as altitude increases?

which means that if both pressure and temperature decreases there will be an increase in volume since the fall of pressure will be much more rapid than the fall of temperature with altitude. Since the volume increases with altitude and the mass remains unchanged, the density also decreases with altitude.

How does air density change with increasing altitude?

Altitude is height above sea level. The density of air decreases with height. There are two reasons: at higher altitudes, there is less air pushing down from above, and gravity is weaker farther from Earth's center. So at higher altitudes, air molecules can spread out more, and air density decreases

What are Barometers?

An instrument measuring atmospheric (air) pressure, used especially in forecasting the weather and determining altitude.

What is an Aneroid barometer?

A device for measuring atmospheric pressure without the use of fluids. It consists of a partially evacuated metal chamber, the thin corrugated lid of which is displaced by variations in the external air pressure.

Why do commercial airliners fly at 35,000 feet?

Basically, the higher a plane flies, the thinner the air is. This is both good and bad. Good: there's less drag on the plane, so less fuel is needed to hit the same speed. ... Higher altitudes also require a longer climb, which in turn means the airplane burns more fuel to reach its cruising altitude.

What defines the boundaries between each layer of the atmosphere?

Between each layer of the atmosphere is a boundary. Above the troposphere is the tropopause, above the stratosphere is the stratopause, above the mesosphere is the mesopause, and above the thermosphere is the thermopause. Mesopause—the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere; the coldest place on Earth. mesosphere—the layer in which most meteors burn up after entering Earth's atmosphere and before reaching Earth's surface. stratopause—the boundary between the mesosphere and the stratosphere.

What are the 5 main layers of atmosphere?

Earth's atmosphere is divided into five main layers: the exosphere, the thermosphere, the mesosphere, the stratosphere and the troposphere.

What layer of the atmosphere do satellites orbit?

Exosphere. This is the outermost layer of the atmosphere. It extends from the top of the thermosphere to 6,200 miles (10,000 km ) above the earth. In this layer, atoms and molecules escape into space and satellites orbit the earth.

What is a Major source of oxygen for Earth's atmosphere

In the process of photosynthesis, phytoplankton release oxygen into the water. Half of the world's oxygen is produced via phytoplankton photosynthesis. The other half is produced via photosynthesis on land by trees, shrubs, grasses, and other plants.

Which layer of the atmosphere is the highest that an airplane can fly?

It is also the layer that contains all of our weather. To avoid turbulence and bad weather, larger planes will sometimes fly in the upper boundary of the Troposphere, called the Tropopause, or even into the lower boundary of the next layer, called the Stratosphere.

What is Oxygen?

Known chemically as O2, 21% of the atmosphere is made up of oxygen, no matter what elevation it remains constant.

How do atmospheric pressure and density change with an increase in altitude?

Pressure with Height: pressure decreases with increasing altitude. The pressure at any level in the atmosphere may be interpreted as the total weight of the air above a unit area at any elevation. At higher elevations, there are fewer air molecules above a given surface than a similar surface at lower levels.

Why does air pressure decrease with an increase in altitude?

Pressure with Height: pressure decreases with increasing altitude. The pressure at any level in the atmosphere may be interpreted as the total weight of the air above a unit area at any elevation. At higher elevations, there are fewer air molecules above a given surface than a similar surface at lower levels.

What factor divides the atmosphere into layers?

The atmosphere can be divided into four layers based on temperature variations. The layer closest to the Earth is called the troposphere. Above this layer is the stratosphere, followed by the mesosphere, then the thermosphere.

What happened in the thermosphere?

The aurora (Northern Lights and Southern Lights) mostly occur in the thermosphere. The thermosphere is a layer of Earth's atmosphere. The thermosphere is directly above the mesosphere and below the exosphere. It extends from about 90 km (56 miles) to between 500 and 1,000 km (311 to 621 miles) above our planet.

Which layer of the atmosphere has rain clouds?

The clouds listed in the figure on this page are found in the troposphere, which is the lowest layer in the atmosphere and is where weather occurs. Polar stratospheric clouds are located in a layer of the atmosphere called the stratosphere.

What is Atmosphere

The envelope of gases surrounding the earth or another planet, layer of gases.

What is inside the exosphere?

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. ... However, other scientists do consider the exosphere part of our planet's atmosphere.

Can you breathe in the exosphere?

The exosphere is the very edge of our atmosphere. ... The exosphere has gases like hydrogen and helium, but they are very spread out. There is a lot of empty space in between. There is no air to breathe, and it's very cold.

What happens in the mesosphere?

The layer above the mesosphere is called the thermosphere. The mesosphere starts at 50 km (31 miles) above Earth's surface and goes up to 85 km (53 miles) high. As you get higher up in the mesosphere, the temperature gets colder. The top of the mesosphere is the coldest part of Earth's atmosphere

What items are found in the stratosphere?

The natural phenomena is the ozone layer in the stratosphere as it absorbs ultraviolet radiation. Some man-made objects in the stratosphere are airplanes in the jet stream and weather balloons but as they get higher the volume of the balloon increases and it bursts. The mesosphere is the middle layer of the atmosphere.

Why air is thinner at higher altitude?

The problem is that there are fewer molecules of everything present, including oxygen. So although the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere is the same, the thinner air means there is less oxygen to breathe. Try using our barometric pressure calculator to see how air pressure changes at high altitudes.

What are 3 facts about the stratosphere?

The stratosphere is abundant in ozone, a type of oxygen molecule that absorbs the sun's ultraviolet radiation and uses it to heat this layer in the atmosphere. Interesting Stratosphere Facts: The stratosphere is one of five layers of the atmosphere.

How does temperature change in each layer of the atmosphere?

The troposphere is hotter near the Earth's surface because heat from the Earth warms this air. ... The Mesosphere, like the troposphere layer, has a decrease in temperature with altitude because of the decreases in the density of the air molecules. Thermosphere: As the altitude increases, the air temperature increases.

What happens to the temperature as altitude increases in each layer?

The troposphere is hotter near the Earth's surface because heat from the Earth warms this air. ... The Mesosphere, like the troposphere layer, has a decrease in temperature with altitude because of the decreases in the density of the air molecules. Thermosphere: As the altitude increases, the air temperature increases.

What happens in the troposphere?

The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. We live in the troposphere. Weather happens in the troposphere, and almost all clouds are found in this layer. The next layer up is the stratosphere. The other four layers include the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere, closest to the earth's surface. Its depth is different at different regions of the earth, being deeper in the warmer regions and shallower in the colder regions.

What are 3 facts about the thermosphere?

Thermosphere Facts. The thermosphere is one of five layers of the earth's atmosphere. The other four layers include the troposphere, stratosphere, the mesosphere, and exosphere. The thermosphere is the atmosphere's fourth layer, located above the mesosphere and below the exosphere.

What can be found in the exosphere?

Things Found in the Exosphere. Containing only the faintest wisps of hydrogen and other atmospheric gases, the exosphere is the topmost layer of the Earth's atmosphere.

Does Earth's atmosphere traps energy?

Yes. During the day, the Sun shines through the atmosphere. Earth's surface warms up in the sunlight. At night, Earth's surface cools, releasing the heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The energy in the atmosphere trapped from the sun allows water to exist as a liquid.

Does Air has pressure?

Yes. The mass of all these gas molecules is called air pressure. The pull of gravity results in more gas molecules at sea level than higher up. Therefore, the air pressure is greater closer to the ground.