Earth Environment

(Atmosphere-Magnetic Layers)

Dr Piyush Kuchhal
 Definition of Space
• Legal definition of
space starts around
100 miles (160 km)
• Up to 1000 Km of
altitude, the effects
of molecular flow
and drag can be felt
on spacecraft.
• Above 1000 km,
microgravity
conditions exist.
 Microgravity
➢ Microgravity refers to the condition where gravity seems to be very small. In
microgravity, astronauts can float in their spacecraft - or outside, on a spacewalk.
Heavy objects move around easily. For example, astronauts can move equipment
weighing hundreds of pounds with their fingertips. Microgravity is sometimes called
"zero gravity," but this is misleading.
➢ The spacecraft, its crew and any objects aboard are all falling toward but around Earth.
Since they are all falling together, the crew and objects appear to float when compared
with the spacecraft.
➢ What does it mean to fall around Earth? Earth's gravity pulls objects downward toward
the surface. Gravity pulls on the space station, too. As a result, it is constantly falling
toward Earth's surface. It also is moving at a very fast speed - 17,500 miles per hour. It
moves at a speed that matches the way Earth's surface curves. An orbiting spacecraft
moves at the right speed so the curve of its fall matches the curve of Earth. Because of
this, the spacecraft keeps falling toward the ground but never hits it. As a result, they fall
around the planet. The moon stays in orbit around Earth for this same reason. The moon
also is falling around Earth.
➢ Scientist studies microgravity to learn what happens to people and equipment in space.
Microgravity affects the human body in several ways. For example, muscles and bones can
become weaker without gravity making them work as hard. Astronauts who live on the
space station spend months in microgravity.
 Einstein in 1905
➢ The laws of physics and the speed of light must be the same
for all uniformly moving observers, regardless of their state
of relative motion.
➢ For this to be true, space and time can no longer be
independent. Rather, they are "converted" into each other in
such a way as to keep the speed of light constant for all
observers. (This is why moving objects appear to shrink and
why moving observers may measure time differently.
➢ Space and time are relative (i.e., they depend on the motion
of the observer who measures them)
 Gravity as Curved Space time
➢ Einstein eventually identified the property of spacetime which is responsible for
gravity as its curvature. Space and time in Einstein's universe are no longer flat
(as implicitly assumed by Newton) but can pushed and pulled, stretched and
warped by matter.
➢ Gravity feels strongest where spacetime is most curved, and it vanishes where
spacetime is flat.
➢ "matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved spacetime tells matter how
to move".
➢ A standard way to illustrate this idea is to place a bowling ball (representing a
massive object such as the sun) onto a stretched rubber sheet (representing
spacetime). If a marble is placed onto the rubber sheet, it will roll toward the
bowling ball, and may even be put into "orbit" around the bowling ball. This
occurs, not because the smaller mass is "attracted" by a force emanating from the
larger one, but because it is traveling along a surface which has been deformed by
the presence of the larger mass. In the same way gravitation in Einstein's theory
arises not as a force propagating through spacetime, but rather as a
feature of spacetime itself. According to Einstein, your weight on earth is due to
the fact that your body is traveling through warped spacetime
 Gravity
• Gravity can be described as the curvature of space-time
continuum.
• Microgravity is when the gravity is present but mostly
negligible.
 Planet Earth
• Planet Earth is our first stop in space.
 Atmosphere
➢ Earth's atmosphere is a mixture of gases that
surrounds our home planet.
➢ Besides providing us with something to breathe,
the atmosphere helps make life on Earth possible
in several ways.
➢ It shields us from most of the harmful ultraviolet
(UV) radiation coming from the Sun, warms the
surface of our planet by about 33° C (59° F) via
the greenhouse effect, and largely prevents
extreme differences between daytime and night-
time temperatures.
 Atmosphere
➢ The atmosphere is a mixture of many different gases. Nitrogen
and oxygen are by far the most common; dry air is composed of
about 78% nitrogen (N2) and about 21% oxygen (O2).
➢ Argon, carbon dioxide (CO2), and many other gases are also
present in much lower amounts; each makes up less than 1% of
the atmosphere's mixture of gases.
➢ The atmosphere also includes water vapor. The amount of water
vapor present varies a lot, but on average is around 1%.
➢ There are also many small particles - solids and liquids -
"floating" in the atmosphere. These particles, which scientists
call "aerosols", include dust, spores and pollen, salt from sea
spray (sea salt aerosol), volcanic ash, smoke, and more.
 Layers of Atmosphere
• Traposphere
• Stratosphere
• Mesosphere
• Thermosphere
• Exosphere
 Troposphere
➢ The troposphere is the lowest layer of our
atmosphere. Starting at ground level, it extends
upward to about 10 km (6.2 miles or about 33,000
feet) above sea level. We humans live in the
troposphere, and nearly all weather occurs in this
lowest layer. Most clouds appear here, mainly
because 99% of the water vapor in the atmosphere is
found in the troposphere. Air pressure drops, and
temperatures get colder, as you climb higher in the
troposphere.
➢ It is the region where convection take place. The
buoyant air starts to rise and concurrent downward
flow of cooler air to take its place.
 Stratosphere
➢ The next layer up is called the stratosphere. The stratosphere extends
from the top of the troposphere to about 50 km (31 miles) above the
ground. The infamous ozone layer is found within the stratosphere.
Ozone molecules in this layer absorb high-energy ultraviolet (UV) light
from the Sun, converting the UV energy into heat.
➢ Ozone layer is formed when sun light is interacting with molecular
oxygen. Its conc is greatest at an altitude of 25Km.
➢ CFCs-Chloroflurocarbons by-product of refrigerators, propellant, dry-
cleaning products. Air-conditioners etc. turns out to be extraordinarily
efficient at destroying atmospheric ozone.
➢ Unlike the troposphere, the stratosphere actually gets warmer the higher
you go. That trend of rising temperatures with altitude means that air in
the stratosphere lacks the turbulence and updrafts of the troposphere
beneath. Commercial passenger jets fly in the lower stratosphere, partly
because this less-turbulent layer provides a smoother ride. The jet stream
flows near the border between the troposphere and the stratosphere.
 Mesosphere
➢ Above the stratosphere is the mesosphere. It
extends upward to a height of about 85 km (53
miles) above our planet. Most meteors burn up in
the mesosphere. Unlike the stratosphere,
temperatures once again grow colder as you rise
up through the mesosphere. The coldest
temperatures in Earth's atmosphere, about -90° C
(-130° F), are found near the top of this layer. The
air in the mesosphere is far too thin to breathe; air
pressure at the bottom of the layer is well below
1% of the pressure at sea level, and continues
dropping as you go higher.
 Thermosphere
➢ The layer of very rare air above the mesosphere is called
the thermosphere. High-energy X-rays and UV radiation from
the Sun are absorbed in the thermosphere, raising its
temperature to hundreds or at times thousands of degrees.
However, the air in this layer is so thin that it would feel
freezing cold to us. In many ways, the thermosphere is more
like outer space than a part of the atmosphere. Many satellites
actually orbit Earth within the thermosphere.
➢ Variations in the amount of energy coming from the Sun exert
a powerful influence on both the height of the top of this layer
and the temperature within it. Because of this, the top of the
thermosphere can be found anywhere between 500 and 1,000
km (311 to 621 miles) above the ground. Temperatures in the
upper thermosphere can range from about 500° C (932° F) to
2,000° C (3,632° F) or higher. The aurora, the Northern Lights
and Southern Lights, occur in the thermosphere.
 Exosphere
➢ Although some experts consider the thermosphere to be the
uppermost layer of our atmosphere, others consider
the exosphere to be the actual "final frontier" of Earth's
gaseous envelope. As you might imagine, the "air" in the
exosphere is very, very, very thin, making this layer even more
space-like than the thermosphere. In fact, air in the exosphere
is constantly - though very gradually - "leaking" out of Earth's
atmosphere into outer space. There is no clear-cut upper
boundary where the exosphere finally fades away into space.
Different definitions place the top of the exosphere somewhere
between 100,000 km (62,000 miles) and 190,000 km (120,000
miles) above the surface of Earth. The latter value is about
halfway to the Moon!
 Ionosphere
➢ The ionosphere is not a distinct
layer like the others mentioned
above. Instead, the ionosphere is
a series of regions in parts of the
mesosphere and thermosphere
where high-energy radiation
from the Sun has knocked
electrons loose from their parent
atoms and molecules. The
electrically charged atoms and
molecules that are formed in this
way are called ions, giving the
ionosphere its name and
endowing this region with some
special properties.
➢ Ionosphere ion concentration
can vary depending on day/night
or seasonal changes as well as
sunspots.
 Ionosphere and Radio Signals
➢ The ionosphere regions can absorb or dampen radio
signals, or they can bend radio waves, as well as
reflecting the signals as described above. The specific
behavior depends on both the frequency of the radio
signal as well as the characteristics of the ionosphere
region involved.
➢ Radio waves generally travel in straight lines, so unless
a tall transmission tower can "see" the top of a receiver
tower, the curvature of the Earth limits the range of
radio transmissions to stations that are not over the
horizon. However, some frequencies of radio waves
bounce or reflect off of the electrically charged
particles in certain ionosphere layers.
➢ The depleted ozone layer
(hole) over Antartic- a region
where atmosphere circulation
and low temperatures
conspire each Antartic spring
to create a vast circumpolar
cloud of ice crystals which act
to promote the ozone
destroying reaction resulting
in ozone levels about 50%
below normal for that region.
➢ is larger than North America
➢ Smaller holes are also
observed in the Arctic, and
occasional ozone depletions
of up to 20% have been
reported at lower northern
latitude.