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Layers of Atmosphere
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Date:
Review
1. What are the five Earth systems? As a hint, one has already been filled in for you.
(1) Geosphere
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
2. As you climb a mountain, the temperature becomes (( warmer / colder )).
3. Space is (( warmer / colder )) than the surface of the Earth.
Scientific Notes
The atmosphere is not just one substance. It is composed of several gases. These gases are able
to be separated. The major ingredients of Earth's atmosphere are: nitrogen, oxygen, and argon.
This is a pie chart of the composition of the atmosphere.
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What do you think gas #1 is? ______________________________
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What do you think gas #2 is? ______________________________
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What do you think gas #3 is? ______________________________
With the invention of an instrument
called a spectrometer, scientists were able
to find gases that existed in very small amounts in the
atmosphere. The concentrations of these gases, while small,
were different depending on what country's air was being
sampled. In fact, this variation led to them being labeled the
variable components.
The chart to the left shows the recipe of the gases in
Earth's atmosphere.
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Given what you know now, what gas is in piece #1 of
the pie chart? ________________
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Given what you know now, what gas is in piece #2 of the pie chart? ________________
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Given what you know now, what should be the title of piece #3 of the pie chart?
____________________
The variable components, which together make up less than 1 percent of the atmosphere,
influence both the short-term weather and long-term climate. Water vapor, CO2, CH4, N2O, and SO2 all
have an important property: they absorb heat emitted by the earth and thus warm the atmosphere,
creating what we call the "greenhouse effect." Without these variable components, the surface of the
earth would be about 30 degrees Celsius cooler - too cold for life to exist as we know it.
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Do you think that the greenhouse effect is a good thing or a bad thing? Why?
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The temperature changes with altitude. You can either have the temperature decrease with
increasing altitude, or the temperature can increase with increasing altitude. These changes have led to
the division of the atmosphere into layers.
Scientific Activity
Step 1: Graph the following table. Note that it is Y in the left-most column, and then X. Connect the
points into a line graph.
Step 2: Draw lines to show the separations of the atmosphere into four different layers.
Scientific Notes
The lowermost layer of the atmosphere, called the troposphere, is where all weather occurs.
Within the troposphere, temperature decreases with altitude.
Above the troposphere is the stratosphere. Here, air temperature increases with altitude. The
cause of the temperature reversal is the ozone layer, which is a variable gas. By absorbing UV rays, the
ozone layer warms the air around it and protects us from the harmful radiation that can cause skin
cancer.
Above the stratosphere, temperature begins to drop again in the next layer of the atmosphere
called the mesosphere. This temperature decrease results from the rapidly decreasing density of the air
at this altitude.
Finally, at the outer reaches of the earth’s atmosphere, the intense, unfiltered radiation from the
sun interacts with the gases of our atmosphere and releases energy. This causes the temperature to rise
again in the thermosphere, the outermost layer.
Scientific Activity Cont'd
Step 3: Return to your graph and label each of the layers.
Step 4: Return to your graph and show the location of the ozone layer.
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What was your basis for dividing the atmosphere into layers?
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What causes the temperature to increase with height in the stratosphere?
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What causes the temperature to decrease with height in the mesosphere?
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What causes the temperature to decrease with height in the troposphere?
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