AIR:

Air is a mixture of many gases like oxygen, nitrogen, carbondi oxide and water vapour .

It is interesting to note that even the composition of air is the result of life on earth.

The percentage of carbon di oxide in our atmosphere is a mere fraction of percent because carbon di
oxide is ‘fixed’ in two ways : (i) Green plants convert CO2 into glucose in the percentage of sunlight
and (ii) many marineanimals use carbonates dissolved in sea-water to make their shells.

MOVEMENT OF AIR:

Movement of Air is the result of changes that take place in our atmosphere due to the heating of
air and the formation of water vapour.

The atmosphere can be heated from below by the radiation that is reflected back or re-radiated by
the land or water bodies.

The movement of air from one region to the other created winds.

During the day, direction of the wind would be from the sea to the land.

At night both land and sea start to cool.

All the movements of air resulting in diverse atmospheric phenomena are caused by the uneven
heating of the atmosphere in different regions of the earth.

RAIN:

When waterbodies are heated during the day, a large amount of water evaporates and goes
into the air.

Once the water droplets are formed, they grow bigger by the ‘condensation’ of these water
droplets.

When the drops have grown big and heavy, they fall down in the form of rain .

Sometimes, when the temperature of air is low enough, precipitation may occur in the form
of snow, sleet or hail.

In large parts of India, rains are mostly brought by the south-west or north-east monsoons.

AIR POLLUTION:

When fossil fuels are burnt, nitrogen and sulphur too are burnt and this produces different
oxides of nitrogen and sulphur.

Hydrocarbons present in the atmosphere causes visibility to be lowered.

An increase in the content of these harmful substance in air is called air pollution.