WHAT IS ATMOSPHERE?

Atmosphere is a gaseous layer surrounding the earth. Atmosphere has its own influences on
various processes that take place on earth. It contains a mixture of gases with some impurities.
Atmosphere is the transparent layer through which, life-sustaining solar radiation passes and
reaches the earth’s surface or into the water.The atmosphere is special because it contains life-
sustaining oxygen in large quantities (about 21% by volume). Atmosphere constantly exchange
energy and matter with other components of the earth – lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere.

IMPORTANCE OF ATMOSPHERE

Atmosphere is very important to sustain life on earth. It contains life-supporting

oxygen in sufficiently large quantities. Constant concentration of oxygen is maintained
through oxygen cycle. The oxygen cycle takes place along with other bio-geo chemical cycles.
These cycles connect the atmosphere with hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. It is does not
function by itself, but it functions in conformity with other spheres on earth.

Atmosphere is the transparent layer through which, life-sustaining solar radiation passes and
reaches the earth’s surface or into the water. Solar radiation is the only source to supply energy
for photosynthesis to take place on earth, which thereby supports all other life. Ozone layer
prevents about 95% of harmful ultra-violet radiation from reaching the earth’s surface.

Heated earth emits the energy in the form of infra red radiation during nighttime and this
radiation is absorbed by carbon dioxide, water and few other gases. This process results in
“green house effect”. Thus, the atmosphere is kept warm during night, it will become so cool and
intolerable for living organisms.

COMPOSITION OF ATMOSPHERE
Nitrogen and oxygen are the two major constant gases that make up 99 percent of
the air. Both are important to sustain life on earth. Nitrogen constitutes 78.09% and
oxygen 20.94 percent by volume. The remaining 0.97% is constituted by nitrous oxide and inert
gases such as, argon, helium, krypton, xenon and also by variable gases – carbon dioxide, water
vapor and ozone.

IMPORTANCE OF ATMOSPHERIC GASES AND OTHER

CONSTITUENTS
Nitrogen is very important in the formation of amino acids, which are building blocks of
proteins, and also in the formation of nucleotides, which are part of the genetic materials,(DNA
and RNA).

Oxygen.Every living organism, including humans, need oxygen for respiration. Respiration is
the process through which the chemical energy (food) is converted into usable form of energy by
the living cells.

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Chemical reactions in the atmosphere can occur as gas phase collisions between molecules, on
the surfaces of solid particles (particulate matter) or in aqueous solution (in water droplets). The
reactions that take place in water droplets are predominately acid-base reactions. Gas phase
reactions dominate the chemical changes that occur to substances in the atmosphere.

The hydroxyl radical (HO· ) is the most important single species in atmospheric chemistry.
There are several reactions that form the hydroxyl radical, but the primary process is one where
an O-H bond of the water molecule is broken to form a hydrogen atom (H· ) and a hydroxyl
radical (HO· ). The hydrogen atom can then react with another water molecule to form hydrogen
and a second hydroxyl radical, or with an oxygen molecule (O2) to form a second hydroxyl
radical and an oxygen atom. The new oxygen atom can then react with another water molecule to
form two new hydroxyl radicals. The result of these processes is a constant concentration of
about a 10 million hydroxyl radicals per cubic centimeter of air at ground level. These reactions
are summarized below.

Carbon dioxide is emitted by all living organisms as an end product of respiration.

This carbon dioxide is used by producer organisms (green plants and certain micro
organisms) for the synthesis of food called, photosynthesis. As a large amount of carbon dioxide
is utilized by plants, it plays significant role in keeping the atmosphere at temperatures that
permit life.
The concentration of carbon dioxide, nowadays, is increasing due to human activities. As a
result, huge amounts of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere. Its ever increasing
concentration has already resulted in global warming and in some places, melting of ice.

Water vapor is responsible for cloud formation in the atmosphere and precipitation. Its
concentration varies over time at a given place and at different places. It is an important
component of the atmosphere in determining the weather of a place at a given time. It is
responsible for fog formation. Water vapor also absorbs outgoing radiation from earth as CO2
does and it has a crucial role in green house effect. Thus, both CO2 and H2O along with ozone ,
methane and N2O are called, green house gases.

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STRUCTURE OF ATMOSPHERE
The earth is surrounded by a thin layer of air, called, atmosphere. The atmosphere,
from the surface of earth extends up to 60,000 km.

CLASSIFICATION OF ATMOSPHERE

Can be classified based on composition of constituents and based on temperature variation

1. LAYERS OF ATMOSPHERE BASED ON COMPOSITON OF

CONSTITUENTS
It is the thin layer, in which most of the atmospheric processes take place. According
to the concentration of the gases, atmosphere is divided into:

a. Homosphere: the lower region, extending from the surface of the earth to a height
of 80 to 100 km above the earth. In this layer, gases are more or less uniform in
their chemical composition.

b. Heterosphere: it starts from the upper portion of homosphere and extends to height
of 60,000 km above the earth. In this layer, chemical composition changes with
height. Concentration of gases keep decreasing as one goes up. Inter molecular
distance increases with height and hence, concentration decreases.

2. LAYERS OF ATMOSPHERE BASED ON TEMPERATURE

VARIATION
Atmosphere again can be divided into four distinct layers according to their temperature
characteristics:

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a. Troposphere: it is the bottom layer of the atmosphere. It contains 70% mass of the
atmosphere. It extends to an average height of 12 km. However, its thickness
varies with latitude. A very important feature of this layer is that temperature decreases with
height in this layer. The rate of decrease of temperature with altitude is called,
lapse rate. Average lapse rate in troposphere is -6.4 °C / km. Troposphere ends at
tropopause. Tropopause is just like a lid over the troposphere, where temperature
stops decreasing with height.

b. Stratosphere: it lies just above the tropopause. It extends to a height of 50 km

from earth’s surface. Ozonosphere, a very important layer is found within this
stratosphere. Ozone present in the ozonosphere prevents the harmful ultra-violet
rays from reaching the earth, thereby protecting the life. Thus, ozonosphere acts as
a protective umbrella.
Stratosphere is a calm layer consisting of relatively clean air. Water vapor in this
layer is almost absent, and hence clouds will not form in this layer. In this layer,
temperature increases with height; just opposite to that in troposphere. This
temperature increase with height prevents the vertical winds. Only horizontal
winds are seen. These horizontal winds flow almost always parallel to the earth’s
surface. Absence of vertical winds and the existence of horizontal winds parallel to
earth’s surface result in relatively calm atmosphere (absence of turbulence). This
ensures smooth travel for flights. Absence of clouds also provide with good
visibility for pilots. All the above features led to the operation of jet air planes in
this layer. The flying of jet air planes was partly responsible for the destruction of
ozone. Above the stratosphere, temperature neither decreases nor
increases with height up to some level. This small layer is called, stratopause.

c. Mesosphere: it starts from the edge of the stratopause, just at an approximate

height of 52 km from earth’s surface to height of 80 km from the
ground. In this layer, temperature decreases with height as in troposphere. This
layer, as such does not have any impact on life. But, it gains importance as it plays
crucial role in radio communication. Sunlight passing through this layer, converts the individual
molecules to individual charged ions i.e. ionization. Ionized particles are concentrated as a zone
called the D-layer. This D-layer reflects radio waves sent from earth. But this D-layer blocks the
communications between earth and astronauts.
In this layer, during summer, at night times, a spectacular display of wispy clouds
can be seen sometimes over high latitudes. It is presumed that meteoric dust
particles coated with ice crystals reflect the sunlight resulting in wispy clouds. Just
above the mesosphere lies, mesopause, in which temperature neither decreases nor
increases.

d. Thermosphere: it is found approximately above 80 km from earth’s surface to the edge

of space at about 60,000 km from earth’s surface. Temperature keeps rising with altitude in this
layer. It is likely to reach 900 °C at an altitude of 350 km. However, these high temperatures are
not felt as in lower layers. The air molecules are so far apart in this layer. As a result, these

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temperatures really apply to individual molecules only. In this layer too, ionization of molecules
take place. It results in individual charged ions. This process produces two ionized belts, viz.,
E- and F-layers. These layers also reflect radio waves and have influence over
radio communications. In the upper thermosphere, there is a layer called magnetosphere. It is
called as earth’s magnetic field has more influence over the movement of particles rather than
earth’s gravitational field. Thermosphere as such has no definable upper boundary and gradually
blends with space.