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.jp
g/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_a
ctivity_print.html
Temperatures in the Atmosphere
Why 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 Tropopause, 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.jpg
http://www.okiu.ac.jp/Language/contest/02/12/ozone.gif
Weather Balloons explore the
stratosphere.
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/sose/wvi/images/scen3.jpg
http://www.discover.uottawa.ca/~aelsawah/GNG1101/LAB2_files/image004.jpg
In the Stratosphere… spy planes!
http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/21/sr71bla
ckbird.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!
Mesospherewhere the meteors
burn.
hektor.umcs.lublin.pl/.../collection/nantan.jpg
http://www.meteorites.homepage.t-online.de/jpg/cerny.jpg
Millions of meteors burn up in our
atmosphere each year. If they hit
the ground, they are called a
meteorite.
Perseid Meteor Shower
http://www.montaukobservatory.com/Observer/meteor-nasa.gif
If it weren’t for the atmosphere…
(Barringer Crater) in Arizona, some 38 miles east of Flagstaff,
http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/epubs/bolide/images/meteorcrater.jpg
Meteor Impact in the
Yucatan Peninsula,
Mexico. This possibly
killed off the
dinosaurs.
http://www.worth1000.com/entries/111000/111117fKmj_w.jpg
Smaller impacts do occur but are
rare.
Peru, South America
Peeksgill, New York
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/peru-meteor-1.jpg
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0611/peekskill_thomas.jpg
http://www.arsc.edu/science/ionosphere.html
THERMOSPHERE IS MADE OF THE
IONOSPHERE & THE EXOSPHERE.
http://www.arsc.edu/science/ionosphere.html
Ionosphere- Where solar particles
are ionized in the upper atmosphere.
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…
http://www.astrosurf.com/cidadao/moon_99_02_23_south.jpg
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.
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.physical
geography.net/fundamentals/images/pressure_altitude.jpg&i
mgrefurl=http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7d
.html&usg=__2bKRE46nD8PHInoiyOVgt1Lv2ok=&h=580&
w=491&sz=59&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=qFcE7U_YbFDyM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq
%3Dair%2Bpressure%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3
Dactivep
Credit:Mr. Fontaine, Mercer Middle School