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Atmosphere- Documentary

Presentation · July 2011

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28235.80161

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 Atmosphere- Documentary

By
Prof. A. Balasubramanian
University Of Mysore
14-7-2011

Introduction:

Environment is the total set of circumstances that surround an individual or a community. There are four
environmental segments controlling the life and the global environmental processes. They are:
1. Atmosphere,
2. Hydrosphere,
3. Lithosphere and
4. Biosphere.

Earth is a dynamic evolving system. All of these segments are inter-related. The mutual interactions of
these segments are responsible for the dynamic changes and the resultant impacts over the globe.
Any change imposed or occurred in one segment will affect the nature and functioning of the others as
well. Land, water, air and living organisms are the four major elements subjected to the these dynamic
processes. Light, heat and water are the environmental factors influencing the environmental conditions
of life on land. Air is precious and life can not be sustained on this planet without air. Atmosphere is an
important environmental segment of the globe. In this episode, we are going to see the following
modules:
1. Introduction to Atmosphere
2. Structure of the atmosphere
3. Composition of the atmospheric air
4. Atmosphere and global climate
5. Atmospheric chemical reactions

1. INTRODUCTION TO ATMOSPHERE:

Atmosphere is the layer of gases surrounding the Earth.

This layer is retained over the globe, by the action of earth’s gravity.

It contains about 5000 million tonnes of gases.

Among these, the occurrence of
Nitrogen amounts to 78%,
oxygen to 21%,
carbon-di-oxide to 0.33% and
argon to 0.93%.
These are the primary gases present in the atmosphere.

The other gases present in the atmosphere are

helium,
methane,
ozone,
neon,
xenon and
many other trace gases.

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Atmosphere is like an envelope covering the earth. It has no abrupt cut-off.
There is no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. It slowly becomes thinner and
fades away into the space.

Above a height of 50 km from the earth's surface, atmosphere contains only oxygen, ozone, helium and
hydrogen.

Atmosphere contains water vapor. Earth is called as the blue planet, since it contains water and the
cloud cover. The presence of water vapor varies with reference to seasons.

The Earth’s atmosphere has evolved into the present condition over a period of geological time and
phases.
Many experts have worked on the evolution of earth’s atmosphere.
The history of the Earth's atmosphere prior to one billion years ago is poorly understood.
Atmosphere had two different compositions earlier.
The modern atmosphere is sometimes referred to as the "third atmosphere". The original atmosphere
was primarily containing helium and hydrogen.
Heat which was emanated from the molten mass of the earth’s interior and the sun, have dissipated this
atmosphere.

The earth, with all its volcanic eruptions, released steam, carbon dioxide, and ammonia. This created the
"second atmosphere".

In this phase, the atmosphere was primarily having

carbon dioxide and
water vapor, with some nitrogen,
but virtually no oxygen.

This second atmosphere had about 100 times as much gas as the current atmosphere.

It is generally believed that the greenhouse effect, caused by high levels of carbon dioxide, kept the earth
from freezing.

During the next few billion years,

water vapor condensed to form rain and oceans, which began to dissolve carbon dioxide. This was the
first aquatic environment favored the origin of life.

Due to the evolution of life, the levels of oxygen increased significantly dropping the levels of carbon
dioxide.

With the appearance of an ozone layer (ozone is an allotrope of oxygen) life forms were protected from
the ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

This oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere is considered to be the "third atmosphere".

We are, now, living in this third atmosphere.

Atmosphere is responsible for

a) the unequal heating of the earth’s surface by insolation,
b) different heat zones,
c) variation in temperature,
d) changes in atmospheric pressure,

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e) origin of winds,
f) formation of clouds, rain fall and snow fall.

Weather is the state of atmosphere in terms of temperature, wind, moisture and conditions of the sky.
Climate is the average of weather conditions.

2. STRUCTURE OF THE AIR-SPHERE :

Atmosphere is stratified in the form of layers based on the physico-chemical conditions.

It is divided into three major layers as,

Troposphere,
Stratosphere and
Ionosphere.

The characteristics of these layers, vary in relation to their composition, temperature and impacts of
radiation.

Troposhere:

Troposphere is the layer, lying just above the surface of the earth. It contains 70% of the mass of the
atmosphere.
It extends upto 8-18 km.

The air in this spehere, contains

1% water vapour and
more CO2.

It is a dusty layer.
The fall of temperature in this zone is 1 deg. C per km. The tem. Ragenes from 15 deg. C to –56 Deg. C.

Troposphere, is the zone of turbulence, climate and weather. It ends as tropopause, separating the
stratosphere from troposphere.

There is little but no mixing of theses two layers.

Hence, most of the pollutants stay in troposphere.
Some extremely stable compounds like CFCs do cross into the next layer.

Stratosphere:

Stratosphere is the second layer of the atmosphere.

It extends upto 80 km.
In this zone, the meteors will be visible.
In stratosphere,
there is 1000 times less water vapor and
1000 times more ozone than the troposphere.

This layer is free from clouds.

Most of the Aircrafts, go above the clouds and fly through this stratosphere, as there is little turbulence,
for flying.

3
Hence, this zone is called as the zone of jet planes.
In this layer the teperature inceases with increase in altitude. From –52 to –2 deg. C.
This layer ends as stratopause, separating the next higher layer, ie the Ionosphere.

Stratosphere contains an ozone layer which protects the life from the Sun's, ultra violet radiation. Ozone
is formed by UV radiation or lightning interacting with O2 molecules.

Ozone itself is very harmful to all cells because it is very highly reactive.

Sometimes, certain urban pollutants tend to form ozone near the ground, when exposed to sun light and
create environmental problems.

Stratosphere also prevents, tropospheric O2 from being converted into ozone.

Ozone depletes due to chlorofluro carbons of propellants.

Depletion of ozone, is the principal cause for sunburn, skin and eye cancers and cataracts.

Heating in the stratosphere, is due to the energy released by UV collisions with O2.

Ionosphere:
The Ionosphere is a major part extending to the space, beyond the stratosphere.

It has some variations in its physico-chemical setup and hence it is divided into three layers as,
Mesosphere, Thermosphere and exosphere.

Mesosphere is the cold layer, thermosphere is a hot layer and the exosphere is layer existing beyond
400 miles, suitable for reflecting all radio wave communications. This layer has a temperature ranging
from –2 deg. C to –92. Deg. C.

The structure of the atmosphere is very unique.

The ionosphere is the region containing ions.

The extend of mesosphere and thermosphere may be going up to 550 km. In thermosphere, the
temperature ranges from –92 deg. C to 1200 deg.

Van Allen radiation belts are the regions where particles from the Sun become concentrated.

Ionospheric has three divisions as D, E and F regions.

The D region is the region containing mainly negative ions, mainly during daytime.
The E- region is dominated by positive ions of O2 and NO and
The F-Region contains all merged atomic ions. This is probably the last phase of atmosphere.

3. COMPOSITION OF AIR

Atmosphere constitutes a mixture of gases. Nearer to the earth's surface, it consists of mostly of nitrogen
and oxygen.

Among the gases, oxygen is the most important for life processes.

4
The carbon-di-oxide of air is variable. Normally, air contains little CO2 over oceans and sparsely
populated regions.
In volcanic regions, the level of C02 may be more, in the air.

This is due to the combustion of carbonaceous matter present in such regions. CO2 is the heaviest of all
other gases.
Hence, it is concentrated more in the lower layers of the atmosphere.

CO2 is the principal source of nutrition for green plants. It acts as a temperature regulator.

The chemical nature of the atmosphere is an important factor in determining the Earth's climate. Heat
energy from the sun is trapped in the Earth's lower atmosphere by a natural process called the
greenhouse effect.

The amount of heat trapped depends primarily on the concentrations of the various greenhouse gases,
such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone, methane, and nitrous oxide.
The two greenhouse gases with the largest concentration in the troposphere are carbon dioxide and water
vapor.

Over the past 160,000 years, estimated levels of water vapor in the lower atmosphere have remained
fairly constant while the levels of carbon dioxide have fluctuated naturally with the warming and cooling
of the Earth.

Measurements indicate that a 25 % increase in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, has
been observed over the last 200 years.

Much of this increase was due to human activities like burning of fossil fuels, conversion of natural
habitats into agricultural fields, and deforestation.

Scientists predict that by 2050, the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere may increase by 80 %
because of theses activities.

It is also expected that the higher levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
will most likely cause the planet to get warmer. This phenomena is called as global warming.

Over the last century, the Earth has warmed by 0.6 degrees Celsius.

Below an altitude of about 100 km, the Earth's atmosphere has a more-or-less uniform composition
(apart from water vapor).

However, above about 100 km, the Earth's atmosphere begins to have a composition which varies with
altitude.
This is essentially because, in the absence of mixing,
the density of a gas falls off exponentially with increasing altitude, but at a rate which depends on the
molecular mass.

Thus higher mass constituents, such as oxygen and nitrogen, fall off more quickly than lighter
constituents such as helium, molecular hydrogen, and atomic hydrogen.

Thus the zone of varying composistion in the atmosphere is called as the heterosphere.

5
As the altitude increases, atmosphere is dominated successively by helium, molecular hydrogen, and
atomic hydrogen.

4. ATMOSPHERE AND GLOBAL CLIMATE

The temperature of the Earth's atmosphere varies with altitude.

 In troposphere temperature is decreasing with height.

 In stratosphere, temperature increasing with height.
 In mesosphere, temperature is decreasing with height.
 In thermosphere, temperature is increasing with height.

The factors that determine the earth’s temperature are:

a) amount of sun light received
b) amount of sun light reflected(albedo)
c) retention of heat by atmosphere
d) evaporation and condensation of water vapor.

Water vapor and other gases- CO2, methane, CFCs, NOX,O3, warm the atmosphere because they absorb
and re-emit radiation.

Air temperature near the ground has a profound effect on the biosphere and pedosphere which is the
sphere of soil.

Temperature on the earth’s surface is also not uniform. It is hotter near the equator and colder at the
poles.

MOVEMENT OF AIR

Atmospheric pressure is a direct result of the weight of the air. This means that air pressure varies with
location and time because the amount (and weight) of air above the earth varies with location and time.

Atmospheric pressure drops by ~50% at an altitude of about 5 km (equivalently, about 50% of the total
atmospheric mass is within the lowest 5 km).

The average atmospheric pressure, at sea level, is about 101.3 kilopascals (about 14.7 pounds per square
inch).

The lower atmosphere is warmer, denser and heavier.

Atmosphere also contains water vapour. This comes due to the evoporation of water bodies like oceans,
seas and lakes.

Water vapour helps in the condensation and cloud formation processes. It ultimately leads to
precipitation. The conversion of water into vapour also involves absorption of much heat energy. Thus
evaporation and condensation of water moves thermal energy around on earth.

5. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMICAL REACTIONS

The parameters which fluctuate very much in the atmosphere are

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 a) the composition,
b) temperature
c) humidity and
d) intensity of light.

These variations influence more in the reactions. The oxides of sulphur and nitrogen are much involved
in these changes.
SO2 is one of the dangerous pollutants of the atmosphere. The presence of which may lead to the
occurrence of acid rain.
Nitrous oxide has a major role to play in the upper atmosphere.
It may deplete the ozone layer. Nitric oxide is mainly produced by the combustion of fossil fuels.
Similarly, organic compounds and hydrocarbons are susceptible to oxidation processes, which may lead
to the formation of photochemical smog.

Chemicals /gases present in the atmosphere are subjected to photochemical reactions by absorption of
solar radiation.
1. Oxygen and ozone chemistry including oxygen cycle. Responsible for the degradation of organic
materials and weathering process.
2. Reaction pertaining to Suphur di-oxdie and the chemical processes like acid rain and photochemical
smog.
3. Role of nitrogen oxide from microbial processes – their sources and sinks.
4. Role of chlorine- ChloroFluoromethanes
5. Greenhouse effect.

CONCLUSION:

The activities of humans are drastically changing the Earth's atmosphere. The level of CO2 has increased
from 280 to 360 ppm in about 200 years. This increase in CO2, a greenhouse gas, may enhance the
Earth's natural greenhouse effect and thus increase global temperatures.
Sceintists believe, that by the year 2050 the CO2 will increase to 600 ppm.

Climate models suggest that this amount of CO2 in the atmosphere may cause the average global
temperature to increase by 1.0-3.5 degrees Celsius. In the stratosphere, holes in the Ozone Layer have
developed over Antarctica and the Arctic allowing for the passage of harmful ultraviolet radiation to the
Earth's surface. Several major cities suffer from toxic smog, a by product of fossil fuel combustion.
Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are causing the formation of acid precipitation and
deposition. A severe reduction in the concentration of ozone in the ozone layer could lead to the
following harmful effects:
 An increase in the incidence of skin cancer (ultraviolet radiation can destroy acids in DNA).
 A large increase in cataracts and sun burning.
 Suppression of immune systems in organisms.
 Adverse impact on crops and animals.
 Reduction in the growth of phytoplankton found in the Earth's oceans.

It is very essential to maintain the equilibrium of atmosphere. Any change induced into the atmosphere
will have very serious environmental impacts over the globe. Let us learn more about the atmospheric
chemical reactions and try to protect the life from such effects.

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