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Who among us every day wonders what we breathe? Rather no one. Meanwhile, the composition and construction of the atmosphere can be fascinating, especially when you love auroras or extreme sports. Let’s start with the composition of air.
Spis treści
Air composition
Air contains constant and variable components, distinguished by their occurrence up to a height of 100 kilometres.
Constant elements include:
- nitrogen – 78.08% by volume
- oxygen – 20.95%
- argon – 0.93%
- other gases: neon, helium, krypton, methane, xenon – less than 0.01%
However, the content of these is variable:
- carbon dioxide – 0.03% on average, due to natural factors (e.g. volcanic eruptions) and anthropogenic factors (e.g. burning fossil fuels)
- Ozone
- water vapour – 0.0-4.1%
- pollution – cosmic, volcanic, weathering, industrial dust, plant pollen, bacteria, sulphur, carbon and nitrogen oxides
At altitudes between 100 and 1000 km, hydrogen and helium are slowly taking over, to be the only components of air on the border with space.
How is ozone formed?
O2 oxygen molecules subjected to ultraviolet solar radiation below 240 nm wavelength, break down into free oxygen molecules. Ozone, or O3, is formed as a result of the collision of an oxygen O2 molecule with a slow-flying O. This is a very unstable connection, in addition, its decay can be accelerated due to air pollution, freon, nitrogen oxides, halons.
Due to continuous solar radiation, most ozone is formed between the tropics. Air circulation moves it above the poles, so paradoxically the thinnest ozone layer is above the equator.
A sensitive issue is the ozone hole and global warming phenomenon. Usually, real arguments are presented, but not the general situation. I will not dwell on this topic here, but the truth is a few facts:
- carbon dioxide dissolves in assessments and causes a rise in surface water temperature
- carbon dioxide in water causes the development of organisms that emit more CO2, and a decrease in the number of diatoms that produce oxygen
- the volume of carbon dioxide (and other components of the Mendeleev array) in the atmosphere increases as a result of human activity – both industrial and agricultural
- human activity has an impact on global warming (however, its scale is debatable)
- in the Earth’s climate, there are natural warming and cooling of the climate with an amplitude of several centuries
Construction of the atmosphere
The atmosphere is made up of several layers – troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. The air tends to be closer to the planet – almost all of it is up to 100 km high, and half of it up to 5 km high. The atmosphere protects the Earth not only from radiation but also from cosmic debris – meteorites, etc.
Troposphere
The troposphere is the most dynamic layer. It stretches from the Earth’s surface to about 7 km above the poles and about 18 km above the equator. The highest is always in the place of sunlight at right angles, which is responsible for air circulation. This is where 4/5 of Earth’s air is located, all geographical phenomena occur, including climate and weather.
The higher, the lower the temperatures. On average, 0.6 degrees Celsius is taken per 100 m. As you can easily count at the end of the troposphere, we note about -75 degrees above the equator and above -45 to -70 above the poles.
The troposphere ends with a tropopause, where there are no more temperature drops.
Stratosphere and ozonosphere
The next layer is the stratosphere, which extends from tropopause to stratopause at an altitude of about 50 km. Initially, temperatures are strongly negative, but from a height of about 35 km to 50 km they rise to zero degrees. Why? This ozone layer absorbs ultraviolet radiation, producing heat. It is assumed that the ozonosphere extends from the upper troposphere to the end of the stratosphere, but just 20-35 km above the surface of the planet ozone is the most.
Mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere
The mesosphere is a 30-35 kilometre layer below the mesopause. The air temperature drops again to -80 to -120 degrees Celsius.
The thermosphere is somewhat similar to the stratosphere. Temperatures rise up to 1000-1500 degrees, all thanks to ions that absorb short and ultra-short electromagnetic waves of solar radiation. In the ionosphere, auroras are formed, which are particularly visible in the polar zones.
It is assumed that at an altitude of about 1000 km above the Earth’s surface begins the exosphere, i.e. the sphere of transition to outer space. The final temperature there are zero degrees, but beware of the Kelvin scale (-273.2 degrees Celsius).
Composition and construction of the atmosphere – interesting fact
In 2012, the Austrian Felix Baumgartner performed a parachute jump from space – at least that’s what the headlines said. And here a small correction. Not from space (zero Kelvin and 1000 degrees Celsius in the thermosphere, I can already see it with the suit he was wearing, although similar for astronauts are tested), but from the stratosphere, from almost 39 kilometres. Of course, he still deserves to be recognized for 4 and a half minutes of free fall and that is enough for landing.
A little fewer media was breaking his record by Alan Eustace in 2014. Not only is the American 13 years older, but he has also jumped from 41 kilometres and flew a total of 15 minutes.
However, it is worth remembering that the first such records were already beaten in the 1960s.
