The Earth’s Atmosphere

re-teaching assignment

The Earth is surrounded by a “blanket” of air called the atmosphere.

http://www.lunaroutpost.com/gallery/earth/pages/earth_full_hires%20copy.htm

The Earth’s Atmosphere is a mixture of gases:

http://webusers.astro.umn.edu/~john/Ast1001/air/atmos-compos.jpg

What are some natural events that afffect the earth’s atmosphere?

Forest fires

Volcanic ash

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Wildfire3.jpg/240px-Wildfire3.jpg

http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/interior/ash.html

What keeps the atmosphere so close to the earth???GRAVITY!

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/sciencekids/gravity2.jpg

Although it seems thin, the atmosphere is ~500 miles thick!

Even the International Space Station flies within the Earth’s atmosphere!

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/spacecraft/iss.jpg

The atmosphere has five basic layers.

http://www.theozonehole.com/atmosphere.gif

THE LAYERS ARE

DETERMINED BY CHANGES

IN TEMPERATURE

http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/layers_activity_print.html

Temperatures in the AtmosphereWhy does the graph zigzag back and forth?

We live in the lowest layer, the troposphere.

http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect14/atmosphere.jpg

Most of Earth’s weather takes place in the troposphere.

http://images.worldofstock.com/slides/TRA1094.jpg

About ten miles up is the Tropo-pause, where the troposphere

ends.

Most jet planes can fly close to or just above the tropopause.

Between each atmospheric layer, we have a “pause” or break. These are arbitrary lines- and not real breaks.

http://www.epa.gov/apti/course422/images/fig-1.gif

After the troposphere comes the stratosphere.

http://www.greenfacts.org/glossary/images/stratosphere-troposphere.jpg

High winds in the statosphere are called the Jet Stream.

www.accuweather.com/www/nyc/jetstream.gif

The Ozone layer (O3) can be found in the stratosphere. It protects us from harmful UV radiation from the sun.

http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/138/ozone_hole_large.jpghttp://www.okiu.ac.jp/Language/contest/02/12/ozone.gif

Weather Balloons explore the stratosphere.

http://www.discover.uottawa.ca/~aelsawah/GNG1101/LAB2_files/image004.jpg

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/sose/wvi/images/scen3.jpg

In the Stratosphere… spy planes!

http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/21/sr71blackbird.jpg

Believe it or not, 99% of all the gases that surround the earth are found in the first two layers we’ve seen so far.

Mesosphere is the layer In the Middle!

Mesosphere- where the meteors burn.

http://www.meteorites.homepage.t-online.de/jpg/cerny.jpg

hektor.umcs.lublin.pl/.../collection/nantan.jpg

Millions of meteors burn up in our atmosphere each year. If they hit the ground, they are called a meteorite.

http://www.montaukobservatory.com/Observer/meteor-nasa.gif

Perseid Meteor Shower

If it weren’t for the atmosphere…

http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/epubs/bolide/images/meteorcrater.jpg

(Barringer Crater) in Arizona, some 38 miles east of Flagstaff,

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/111000/111117fKmj_w.jpg

Meteor Impact in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. This possibly killed off the dinosaurs.

Smaller impacts do occur but are rare.

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/peru-meteor-1.jpg

Peru, South America

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0611/peekskill_thomas.jpg

Peeksgill, New York

THERMOSPHERE IS MADE OF THE IONOSPHERE & THE EXOSPHERE.

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Ionosphere- Where solar particles are ionized in the upper atmosphere.

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Ionosphere reflects radio waves

apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/.../ionosphere_layers.psd.gif

The Aurora- Borealis (N)/Austrialis (S)

http://shelp.chess.cornell.edu/multimedia/aurora/09_07_02/35mmlights2_9_7_02.jpg

The Exosphere is

the outermost layer. After

that the area we call “outer space” begins.

atschool.eduweb.co.uk/.../gfx/exosphere.jpg

Temperatures in the Exosphere

Things found in the Exosphere.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/spacecraft/iss.jpg

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/space/hsfe_shuttle/images/nasa-sys_shuttle_sts071-741_200X250.jpg

Satellites orbit Earth in the exosphere.

http://www.wmo.ch/web/www/images/GOS/Figure%20II-10%20Satellites.jpg

If it weren’t for the atmosphere, our earth

would look like…

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The moon, with thousands of impact craters.

Because the moon has less gravity and much higher temperatures than the earth, its gases get

“excited” or very energetic, and are lost to space.

http://ww

w.abc.net.au/science/features/lunaeclipse2007/

What is Air Pressure?

Air pressure is the weight of the atmosphere pressing down on an area of the earth.

http://dogfoose.com/infotoons/

Pressure changes with altitude – the higher altitude, the lower the air pressure.

htt://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/images/pressure_altitude.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7d.html&usg=__2bKRE46nD8PHInoiyOVgt1Lv2ok=&h=580&w=491&sz=59&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=qFc-E7U_YbFDyM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dair%2Bpressure%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactivep

Credit:Mr. Fontaine, Mercer Middle School