The Atmosphere Flashcards
(22 cards)
How thick is the atmosphere?
No, definite line
- half the way to the moon (190 000 km) or 100 km
Percentage of element in the atmosphere?
- 78.08% nitrogen
- 20.95% oxygen
- 0.93% argon
- 0.04% carbon dioxide, and traces of hydrogen, helium, and other “noble” gases (by volume)
Name all the 6 spheres on Earth:
Atmosphere Hydrosphere Cryosphere Biosphere Pedosphere Lithosphere
What does the spheres respectively mean? Atmosphere Hydrosphere Cryosphere Biosphere Pedosphere Lithosphere
Atmosphere - vapor, gas Hydrosphere - water Cryosphere - frosen, ice Biosphere - living Pedosphere - soil Lithosphere - rock
Name all the 4 layers of the atmosphere:
From bottom up:
Troposphere: mixing, 75-80% of atm. 99% of water vapor, aerosols
Stratosphere: streched out, 15-50km, 20% of atm, ozone!
Mesosphere: middle, 50 - 100km
Thermosphere: heat, 85km -
Lapse rate of the different atmospheric layers:
Troposphere: 6.5 K/km + instable, intense vertical mixing turbulence
Stratosphere: - stable, little vertical mixing, long recidence time
Mesosphere: + instable
Thermosphere: - stable
Where is “the edge of space”?
Mesopause (90-100km), just above the Mesosphere
Where is the ozone layer?
There is a strong increase of teh O3 molecules in the stratosphere at hights around 25 km.
Where is the weather?
Most of the weather occurs in the troposphere with the unstable and turbulent system.
What is an inversion layer?
A layer with negative lapse rate wich prevents mixing between the layers.
What is the result from the uneven heating of Earth’s surface?
The mass movement of air and water over the globe.
How does the different sides of the Hadley cell behave?
- Where the winds go up, we have warm wet air with turbulent flow, lots of weather and clouds.
- Where the winds go down we have dry cooler air and a calm weather.
What is the intertropical convergence zone?
Marked by a band of cloudes along the meterological (thermal) equator. Wet at summer and dry at winter (thermal equator moves away during winter).
Describe tropical storms:
- Always Low-pressure
- Main energy source is the ocean heat
- Formed close to Affrica and transported with the “east trade winds” NE and SE
- Global warming will give us more intense tropical storms.
At what latitudes are most desserts?
Along the high-pressure lattitudes:
+- 30 deg +- 90 deg
Troposphere:
mixing up to 15km 75-80% of atm 99% of water vapor and aerosols the weather turbulent
Stratosphere:
Streched out 15-50km 20% of atm UV absoption 200-lamdba-300nm ozone!
Mesosphere:
Middle
50 - 90km
The least studied
(too low for satelites, too high for balloons)
Thermosphere:
Heat 90km - Spacecrafts can orbit Formation of ions with solar radiation UV X-ray absorption - 200nm up to 2500degC almost vacuum (little heat energy)
Tropopause:
20km
-60degC
Stratopause:
50km
0degC
Mesopause:
90km
-100degC
