ATMOSPHERE

What is Atmosphere
- The atmosphere refers to the layers of gases
encircling the globe, which is about 500 km thick
from the Earth's surface.
- The bottom 30 kilometers (19 miles) of the
atmosphere contains about 98 percent of its
mass. The atmosphere—air—is much thinner at
high altitudes. There is no atmosphere in space.

- Atmosphere is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, so it cannot

be seen with the naked eye.
-The atmosphere is very important for living organisms on
Earth in terms of their life processes and protecting them from
hazardous materials or radiation outside Earth.
Features of the Atmosphere:
1. Helps retain the sun’s heat and
prevents it from escaping back
into space.
2. protects life from harmful
radiation from the sun.
3. Plays a major role in Earth’s water
cycle.
4. Helps keep the climate on Earth
moderate.
 Stages of Evolution of the Atmosphere

The evolution of the atmosphere that we inhabit

today can be split into three main stages:
 the early atmosphere,
 ocean formation, and
 the biological era.
 The Early Atmosphere

⁻ When the Earth first formed, it had no

atmosphere.
⁻ The planet was a sweltering ball of
molten rock under constant strike by
asteroids and rocks.
⁻ When the bombardment began to slow
down, a thin atmosphere was created
from hydrogen and helium, the most
abundant elements in the universe.
⁻ Volcanoes formed the first true
atmosphere.
⁻ When they erupted, they spewed
carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen,
and water vapor. Gradually, the
atmosphere filled up with these
gases.
 Cooling and Ocean Formation
⁻ After a few million years of volcanoes and sweltering heat,
the planet gradually began to cool down.
⁻ The water vapor condensed into a liquid, and rain fell for
centuries, filling up the rock basins to form oceans.
⁻ Carbon dioxide is dissolved into the water, creating
carbonate compounds.
⁻ These compounds were then precipitated to form
sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels.
 The Biological Era
The oldest pieces of evidence for
life on Earth are stromatolites,
which appeared 300 million years
after the formation of the oceans.

Note: Stromatolites are layered

rocks that form when
cyanobacteria (microscopic
photosynthesizing organisms)
bind films of sediment together.
stromatolites
⁻ And then photosynthesis caused a
significant shift in the Earth's atmosphere.
⁻ Oxygen(O2) is a byproduct of photosynthesis.
⁻ Initially, rocks took up most of the oxygen
produced, so they didn't build up in the
atmosphere.
⁻ It wasn't until algae evolved that
atmospheric oxygen levels began to increase
almost a billion years later.
⁻ As photosynthesis increased, carbon dioxide
(CO2) was used up and slowly removed from
the atmosphere.
 The Modern Day Atmosphere
⁻ The water vapor cooled down to form oceans.
⁻ The carbon dioxide got used up and replaced by
oxygen.
⁻ But what about the nitrogen from volcanic eruptions?
Nitrogen is an inert gas, so it didn't react with
anything. Its unreactivity allowed it to slowly build up
until it became the dominant gas in today's atmosphere.
 Elements of the atmosphere
⁻ The atmosphere in the earlier era was composed of carbon
dioxide and hydrogen.
⁻ As the Earth's surface got extremely warm, the hydrogen broke
up into ions and dispersed into space causing hydrogen in the
atmosphere to decrease.
⁻ After the Earth's surface became cooler, the atmosphere
changed.
⁻ In other words, oxygen replaced carbon dioxide as a major
element of the atmosphere.
The basic elements of the atmosphere are as
follows.
 Dry air
 Water vapor
 Dust particles
01) Dry Air
 Dry air
Dry air is a major element of the atmosphere. It contains varying
amounts of gases as follows.
 Oxygen
⁻ Oxygen, although constituting only 21%
of the total volume of the atmosphere, is
the most important component among
gases.
⁻ All living organisms inhale oxygen.
⁻ Besides, oxygen can combine with other
elements to form important compounds,
such as oxides.
⁻ Also, combustion is not possible without
oxygen.
 Nitrogen
⁻ Nitrogen accounts for 78% of total
atmospheric volume.
⁻ It is a relatively inert gas and is an
important constituent of all organic
compounds.
⁻ The main function of nitrogen is to control
combustion by diluting oxygen.
⁻ It also indirectly helps in the oxidation of
different kinds.
 Carbon Dioxide
‐ The third important gas is Carbon Dioxide which constitutes only about 03% of
the dry air and is a product of combustion.
‐ Green plants, through photosynthesis, absorb carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and use it to manufacture food and keep other bio-physical processes
going.
‐ Being an efficient absorber of heat, carbon dioxide is considered to be of great
climatic significance.
‐ With the increased burning of fossil fuels – oil, coal, and natural gas – the
carbon dioxide percentage in the atmosphere has been increasing at an alarming
rate.
‐ More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more heat absorption. This could
significantly raise the temperature at lower levels of the atmosphere thus
inducing drastic climatic changes.
 Ozone (03)
‐ Ozone (03) is another important gas in the atmosphere, which is actually a type
of oxygen molecule consisting of three, instead of two, atoms.
‐ It forms less than 0.00005% by volume of the atmosphere and is unevenly
distributed.
‐ It is between 20 km and 25 km altitude that the greatest concentrations of
ozone are found.
‐ It is formed at higher altitudes and transported downwards.
‐ Ozone plays a crucial role in blocking the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the
sun.
‐ Other gases found in almost negligible quantities in the atmosphere are neon,
helium, hydrogen, xenon, krypton, methane etc.
02) Water Vapor
 Water Vapor
• Water vapor is an element of the atmosphere
caused by water evaporation on the Earth's surface
and plant transpiration.
• The amount of water vapor in the air (often
expressed as humidity) varies greatly between the
oceans and deserts, between ground level and
higher altitudes, and between cold and hot regions. 
• It is the principal cause of various natural
phenomena, such as clouds, fog, rain, etc.

Fog
• The amount of water vapor in the air depends on air temperature.
• If the air temperature rises, the amount of water vapor will increase.
• If the air temperature lowers, the amount of water vapor will decrease.
•Moreover, the amount of water vapor in the air also depends on altitude.
• Water vapor density has its maximum at the altitude of 2-3 km above
the Earth's surface and decreases correspondingly to higher altitudes.
• If the air cannot hold more water vapor, it becomes saturated air. When the
water vapor in the air accumulates until it becomes saturated, it will
condense into water droplets and falls to the ground in different forms, such
as rain, dew, hail, and snow.

Dew Hail
Water vapor is part of the water cycle which can be explained as detailed below.
03) Dust Particles
 Dust Particles
• Dust particles refer to minute solid particles floating in the air. The
particle size is from 0.001 to 1,000 microns in diameter.
• Dust particles in the air act as a nucleus on which water vapor holds
and condenses into water droplets. Without these minute particles in
the air, the condensation of water vapor cannot take place.
• The dust particles can be classified into two types as follows.
01) Dust particles that occur naturally are those such as
volcanic ash, pollen spores, and wildfire soot.
2) Dust particles caused by humans are from factories, transportation as
well as microorganisms suspended in the air.
The amount of dust particles varies in different areas.