Information and facts about the atmosphere. The Earth's Atmosphere

The atmosphere is something that provides an opportunity for life on Earth. The very first information and facts about the atmosphere we get in primary school. In the senior classes we already get acquainted with this concept in geography lessons.

The concept of the Earth's atmosphere

There is an atmosphere not only of the Earth, but also of other celestial bodies. This is the name for the gas shell surrounding the planet. The composition of this gas layer of different planets is significantly different. Let's look at the basic facts and facts about the Earth's atmosphere, otherwise called air.

The most important part of it is oxygen. Some mistakenly think that the earth's atmosphere consists entirely of oxygen, but in fact, air is a mixture of gases. It consists of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. The remaining one percent includes ozone, argon, carbon dioxide, water vapor. Let the percentage of these gases be small, but they perform an important function - they absorb a significant part of the solar radiant energy, thus preventing the luminary from turning all living things on our planet into ashes. The properties of the atmosphere vary with height. For example, at an altitude of 65 km, nitrogen is 86%, and oxygen is 19%.

Composition of the Earth's atmosphere

• Carbon dioxide is necessary for plant nutrition. In the atmosphere, it appears as a result of the process of breathing living organisms, rotting, burning. Its absence in the atmosphere would make the existence of any plants impossible.
• Oxygen is a vital component of the atmosphere for humans. Its presence is a condition for the existence of all living organisms. It is about 20% of the total volume of atmospheric gases.
• Ozone - a natural absorber of solar ultraviolet radiation, which adversely affects living organisms. Most of it forms a separate layer of the atmosphere - the ozone screen. Recently, human activity leads to the fact that the ozone layer begins to gradually deteriorate, but since it is of great importance, active work is underway to preserve and restore it.
• Water vapor determines the humidity of the air. Its content may vary depending on various factors: air temperature, territorial location, season. At a low temperature, water vapor in the air is very small, maybe less than one percent, and at high temperatures it reaches 4%.
• In addition to all of the above, a certain percentage of solid and liquid impurities are always present in the composition of the terrestrial atmosphere. It is soot, ash, sea salt, dust, drops of water, microorganisms. They can get into the air both naturally and anthropogenically.

Layers of the atmosphere

And the temperature, density, and qualitative composition of the air are not the same at different heights. Because of this, it is common to distinguish different layers of the atmosphere. Each of them has its own characteristic. Let's find out which layers of the atmosphere are distinguished:

• The troposphere - this layer of the atmosphere is closest to the surface of the Earth. Its height is 8-10 km above the poles and 16-18 km - in the tropics. Here there is 90% of the total water vapor that exists in the atmosphere, so there is an active formation of clouds. Also in this layer are observed such processes as air movement (wind), turbulence, convection. The temperature ranges from +45 degrees at noon in the warm season in the tropics to -65 degrees at the poles.
• The stratosphere is the second layer of the atmosphere, far from the earth's surface. It is located at an altitude of 11 to 50 km. In the lower layer of the stratosphere, the temperature is about -55, toward the distance from the earth it rises to + 1 ° C. This region is called inversion and is the boundary of the stratosphere and mesosphere.
• The mesosphere is located at an altitude of 50 to 90 km. The temperature at its lower boundary is about 0, at the upper reaches -80 ...- 90 ° C. Meteorites falling into the atmosphere of the Earth, completely burned in the mesosphere, because of this, there are glowing air.
• The thermosphere has a thickness of about 700 km. In this layer of the atmosphere, northern lights appear. They appear due to ionization of air under the influence of cosmic radiation and radiation emanating from the Sun.
• The exosphere is the air dispersion zone. Here the concentration of gases is small and their gradual escape to interplanetary space occurs.

The boundary between the earth's atmosphere and cosmic expanses is considered to be the 100 km line. This feature is called the Karman line.

Atmospheric pressure

Listening to the weather forecast, we often hear atmospheric pressure. But what does the pressure of the atmosphere mean, and how can this affect us?

We figured out that the air consists of gases and impurities. Each of these components has its own weight, and therefore, the atmosphere is not weightless, as they believed before the XVII century. Atmospheric pressure is the force with which all layers of the atmosphere press on the surface of the Earth and on all objects.

The scientists carried out complex calculations and proved that for one square meter of the area the atmosphere is crushing with a force of 10 333 kg. Hence, the human body is subject to air pressure, whose weight is 12-15 tons. Why do not we feel this? Saves us our inner pressure, which balances outward. You can feel the pressure of the atmosphere, being on the plane or high in the mountains, because the atmospheric pressure at the altitude is much less. In this case, physical discomfort, ear loss, dizziness is possible.

Interesting facts and facts

About the atmosphere surrounding the globe, you can say a lot. We know about it a lot of interesting facts, and some of them may seem surprising:

• The weight of the earth's atmosphere is 5,300,000,000,000,000 tons.
• It facilitates the transmission of sound. At an altitude of more than 100 km this property disappears due to a change in the composition of the atmosphere.
• The movement of the atmosphere is triggered by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface.
• To determine the air temperature, a thermometer is used, and in order to know the pressure of the atmosphere, a barometer.
• The presence of the atmosphere saves our planet from 100 tons of meteorites daily.
• The composition of air was fixed for several hundred million years, but began to change with the onset of rapid production activity.
• It is believed that the atmosphere extends upwards to a height of 3000 km.

The importance of the atmosphere for man

The physiological zone of the atmosphere is 5 km. At an altitude of 5000 m above sea level, the person begins to manifest oxygen starvation, which is reflected in a decrease in his working capacity and deterioration of well-being. This shows that a person can not survive in a space where there is not this amazing mixture of gases.

All information and facts about the atmosphere only confirm its importance for people. Thanks to its presence, the opportunity to develop life on Earth has appeared. Already today, having estimated the scale of harm that mankind is capable of inflicting on its life-giving air, we should think about further measures to preserve and restore the atmosphere.