Unit 9

Acidity

Chemical characteristic that helps determine how a substance dissolved into water will interact with and effect it's environment. Based on the relative amounts of hydrogen and hydroxide atoms. How a chemical will react and effect its environment based on its number of hydrogen and hydroxide atoms.

Primary Pollutants

Chemical that has been added directly to the air by natural events or human activities and occurs in a harmful concentration

Ozone

Colorless and highly reactive gas and a major reactant in the photochemical smog. Also found in the ozone layer of the stratosphere. In the troposphere is created by combining VOCs with nitrogen under the presence of sunlight.

Nitrogen Oxide

Colorless gas that forms when nitrogen and oxygen gas in the air react at the high-combustible temperatures in an automobile engine and coal burning plants.

Sulfur Dioxide

Colorless gas with an irritating odor. About 1/3 of the sulfur in the atmosphere is formed by natural processes. The other two sources come from human sources. Mostly from sulfur containing coal.

Photochemical Smog

Complex mixture of air pollutants produced in the lower atmosphere by the reaction of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides under the influence of sunlight. pollutants produced by combining hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight.

Drought

Condition in which an area does not get enough water because of lower than normal precipitation or higher than normal temperatures that increases evaporation. An area that has a water shortage due to little precipitation and/or higher than normal temperatures.

Ozone depletion

Decrease in the concentration of ozone in the stratosphere. The ozone layer is decreasing in size.

Atmospheric Pressure

Force or mass per unit of air, caused by the bombardment of a surface by molecules in the air The mass that each unit of air pushes upon a surface molecule

Greenhouse Gases

Gases in the earth's lower atmosphere that cause the greenhouse effect.

Nitrogen dioxide

Reddish brown gas that forms when nitrogen and oxygen react in the air A gas that forms due to nitrogen reacting with oxygen.

Stratosphere

Second layer of earth's atmosphere, extending about 17-48 kilometers above earth's surface. It contains small amounts of gaseous ozone, which filters out about 95% of the incoming harmful UV radiation emitted by the sun.

Particulates

Also known as suspended particulate matter; variety of solid particles and liquid droplets small and light enough to remain suspended in the air for long periods. About 62% of all SPM in outdoor air comes from natural particles such as dust, wildfires, and sea salt. The remaining 38% comes from human sources such as coal burning plants, motor vehicles, plowed fields, unpaved roads, and tobacco smoke. Tiny particles that float in the air and can be made of small solids and/or tiny drops of liquid.

Secondary pollutants

Harmful chemical formed in the atmosphere when a primary air pollutant reacts with normal air components or other pollutants

Trophosphere

Innermost layer of the atmosphere. It contains 75% of the mass of earth's air and extends 17 miles above sea level.

Temperature Inversion

Layer of dense, cool air trapped under a layer of dense, warm air. It prevents upward flowing air currents from developing. In a prolonged inversion air pollution may build up and may build up to harmful levels. Cool air is trapped under dense warm air and it prevents air currents and can cause a buildup of air pollution.

Ozone Layer

Layer of gaseous ozone in the stratosphere that protects life on earth by filtering out harmful UV radiation. A layer in the stratosphere composed of gaseous ozone which filters UV radiation.

Air pollution

One or more chemicals in high enough concentrations in the air to harm humans, other animals, vegetation, or materials. Excess heat is also considered a form of air pollution. Such chemicals or physical conditions are called air pollutants.

Volatile Organic Compounds

Organic compounds that exist as gases in the atmosphere and act as pollutants, some of which are hazards. Organic matter that is transferred the the atmosphere and act as pollutants.

Smog

Originally a combustion of smoke and fog but now used to describe other mixtures of pollutants in the atmosphere. A combination of smoke and fog but now used to describe air pollutants

Cirrus Clouds

thin, high flying clouds that increase heat because they trap heat in the atmosphere.

Acid Deposition

The falling of acid and acid forming compounds from the atmosphere to the earth's surface. Acid deposition is commonly known as acid rain. When acid falls as "rain" to the earth and erodes certain things.

Cumulus Clouds

Thick, relatively low lying clouds that tend to decrease ground warming by reflecting sunlight.

Tipping Point

Threshold level at which an environmental problem causes a fundamental and irreversible shift in the behavior of a system. It is the point beyond no return. Where we have changed something so much that it will never be the same way again.

Industrial Smog

Type of air pollution consisting mostly of a combination of sulfur dioxide, suspended droplets of sulfuric acid formed from some of the sulfur dioxide, and suspended solid particles. Air pollution made of sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, and solid particles.