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- Nitrogen and oxygen are by far the most common gases in our atmosphere. Dry air is composed of about 78% nitrogen (N 2) and about 21% oxygen (O 2). The remaining less than 1% of the atmosphere is a mixture of gases, including argon (Ar) and carbon dioxide (CO 2). The atmosphere also contains varying amounts of water vapor, on average about 1%.
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By mole fraction (i.e., by quantity of molecules), dry air contains 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other trace gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere.
May 13, 2024 · That is essentially what the Earth’s atmosphere is like: layers upon layers of gas surrounding the Earth, working to protect the planet. We asked Rei Ueyama , an atmospheric scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, to explain a little bit more about the function and importance of our atmosphere.
Jul 2, 2024 · The atmosphere surrounds the Earth and holds the air we breathe; it protects us from outer space; and holds moisture (clouds), gases, and tiny particles. In short, the atmosphere is the protective bubble in which we live.
Nitrogen and oxygen are by far the most common gases in our atmosphere. Dry air is composed of about 78% nitrogen (N 2) and about 21% oxygen (O 2). The remaining less than 1% of the atmosphere is a mixture of gases, including argon (Ar) and carbon dioxide (CO 2).
- Overview
- The atmosphere of Earth
- The hydrosphere
Earth is surrounded by a relatively thin atmosphere (commonly called air) consisting of a mixture of gases, primarily molecular nitrogen (78 percent) and molecular oxygen (21 percent). Also present are much smaller amounts of gases such as argon (nearly 1 percent), water vapour (averaging 1 percent but highly variable in time and location), carbon dioxide (0.0395 percent [395 parts per million] and presently rising), methane (0.00018 percent [1.8 parts per million] and presently rising), and others, along with minute solid and liquid particles in suspension.
Because Earth has a weak gravitational field (by virtue of its size) and warm atmospheric temperatures (due to its proximity to the Sun) compared with the giant planets, it lacks the most common gases in the universe that they possess: hydrogen and helium. Whereas both the Sun and Jupiter are composed predominantly of these two elements, they could not be retained long on early Earth and rapidly evaporated into interplanetary space. The high oxygen content of Earth’s atmosphere is out of the ordinary. Oxygen is a highly reactive gas that, under most planetary conditions, would be combined with other chemicals in the atmosphere, surface, and crust. It is in fact supplied continuously by biological processes; without life, there would be virtually no free oxygen. The 1.8 parts per million of methane in the atmosphere is also far out of chemical equilibrium with the atmosphere and crust: it, too, is of biological origin, with the contribution by human activities far outweighing others.
The gases of the atmosphere extend from the surface of Earth to heights of thousands of kilometres, eventually merging with the solar wind—a stream of charged particles that flows outward from the outermost regions of the Sun. The composition of the atmosphere is more or less constant with height to an altitude of about 100 km (60 miles), with particular exceptions being water vapour and ozone.
The atmosphere is commonly described in terms of distinct layers, or regions. Most of the atmosphere is concentrated in the troposphere, which extends from the surface to an altitude of about 10–15 km (6–9 miles), depending on latitude and season. The behaviour of the gases in this layer is controlled by convection. This process involves the turbulent, overturning motions resulting from buoyancy of near-surface air that is warmed by the Sun. Convection maintains a decreasing vertical temperature gradient—i.e., a temperature decline with altitude—of roughly 6 °C (10.8 °F) per km through the troposphere. At the top of the troposphere, which is called the tropopause, temperatures have fallen to about −80 °C (−112 °F). The troposphere is the region where nearly all water vapour exists and essentially all weather occurs.
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Earth is surrounded by a relatively thin atmosphere (commonly called air) consisting of a mixture of gases, primarily molecular nitrogen (78 percent) and molecular oxygen (21 percent). Also present are much smaller amounts of gases such as argon (nearly 1 percent), water vapour (averaging 1 percent but highly variable in time and location), carbon dioxide (0.0395 percent [395 parts per million] and presently rising), methane (0.00018 percent [1.8 parts per million] and presently rising), and others, along with minute solid and liquid particles in suspension.
Because Earth has a weak gravitational field (by virtue of its size) and warm atmospheric temperatures (due to its proximity to the Sun) compared with the giant planets, it lacks the most common gases in the universe that they possess: hydrogen and helium. Whereas both the Sun and Jupiter are composed predominantly of these two elements, they could not be retained long on early Earth and rapidly evaporated into interplanetary space. The high oxygen content of Earth’s atmosphere is out of the ordinary. Oxygen is a highly reactive gas that, under most planetary conditions, would be combined with other chemicals in the atmosphere, surface, and crust. It is in fact supplied continuously by biological processes; without life, there would be virtually no free oxygen. The 1.8 parts per million of methane in the atmosphere is also far out of chemical equilibrium with the atmosphere and crust: it, too, is of biological origin, with the contribution by human activities far outweighing others.
The gases of the atmosphere extend from the surface of Earth to heights of thousands of kilometres, eventually merging with the solar wind—a stream of charged particles that flows outward from the outermost regions of the Sun. The composition of the atmosphere is more or less constant with height to an altitude of about 100 km (60 miles), with particular exceptions being water vapour and ozone.
The atmosphere is commonly described in terms of distinct layers, or regions. Most of the atmosphere is concentrated in the troposphere, which extends from the surface to an altitude of about 10–15 km (6–9 miles), depending on latitude and season. The behaviour of the gases in this layer is controlled by convection. This process involves the turbulent, overturning motions resulting from buoyancy of near-surface air that is warmed by the Sun. Convection maintains a decreasing vertical temperature gradient—i.e., a temperature decline with altitude—of roughly 6 °C (10.8 °F) per km through the troposphere. At the top of the troposphere, which is called the tropopause, temperatures have fallen to about −80 °C (−112 °F). The troposphere is the region where nearly all water vapour exists and essentially all weather occurs.
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Astronomy and Space Quiz
Earth’s hydrosphere is a discontinuous layer of water at or near the planet’s surface; it includes all liquid and frozen surface waters, groundwater held in soil and rock, and atmospheric water vapour. Unique within the solar system, the hydrosphere is essential to all life as it is presently understood. Earth has a surface area of roughly 510,066,000 square km (196,938,000 square miles); almost 71 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by saltwater oceans. The total volume of liquid water on Earth is about 1.39 billion cubic km (332.5 million cubic miles), and it has an average temperature of about 4 °C (39.2 °F), not far above the freezing point of water. The oceans contain about 97 percent of the planet’s water volume. The remainder occurs as fresh water, three-quarters of which is locked up in the form of ice at polar latitudes. Most of the remaining fresh water is groundwater held in soils and rocks; less than 1 percent of it occurs in lakes and rivers. In terms of percentage, atmospheric water vapour is negligible, but the transport of water evaporated from the oceans onto land surfaces is an integral part of the hydrologic cycle that renews and sustains life.
The hydrologic cycle involves the transfer of water from the oceans through the atmosphere to the continents and back to the oceans over and beneath the land surface. The cycle includes processes such as precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, percolation, and runoff. These processes operate throughout the entire hydrosphere, which extends from about 15 km (9 miles) into the atmosphere to roughly 5 km (3 miles) into the crust.
About one-third of the solar energy that reaches Earth’s surface is expended on evaporating ocean water. The resulting atmospheric moisture and humidity condense into clouds, rain, snow, and dew. Moisture is a crucial factor in determining weather. It is the driving force behind storms and is responsible for separating electrical charge, which is the cause of lightning and thus of natural wildland fires, which have an important role in some ecosystems. Moisture wets the land, replenishes subterranean aquifers, chemically weathers the rocks, erodes the landscape, nourishes life, and fills the rivers, which carry dissolved chemicals and sediments back into the oceans.
Water also plays a vital role in the carbon dioxide cycle (a part of the more inclusive carbon cycle). Under the action of water and dissolved carbon dioxide, calcium is weathered from continental rocks and carried to the oceans, where it combines to form calcium carbonates (including shells of marine life). Eventually the carbonates are deposited on the seafloor and are lithified to form limestones. Some of these carbonate rocks are later dragged deep into Earth’s interior by the global process of plate tectonics (see below The outer shell) and melted, resulting in a rerelease of carbon dioxide (from volcanoes, for example) into the atmosphere. Cyclic processing of water, carbon dioxide, and oxygen through geologic and biological systems on Earth has been fundamental to maintaining the habitability of the planet with time and to shaping the erosion and weathering of the continents, and it contrasts sharply with the lack of such processes on Venus. (Evidence of past episodes of liquid water erosion—and possibly limited amounts of such erosion today—has been found on Mars.)
Jul 23, 2023 · What is Earth's atmosphere made of? Earth's atmosphere is made of mainly nitrogen (~78%) and oxygen (21%), with trace amounts of other gases such as argon, water vapor, carbon dioxide,...
Earth’s atmosphere is composed of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and one percent other gases. These gases are found in atmospheric layers (troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere) defined by unique features such as temperature and pressure.
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