Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Layers of Atmosphere Name: 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. What do you think gas #1 is? ______________________________ What do you think gas #2 is? ______________________________ 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. Given what you know now, what gas is in piece #1 of the pie chart? ________________ Given what you know now, what gas is in piece #2 of the pie chart? ________________ 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. Do you think that the greenhouse effect is a good thing or a bad thing? Why? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 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. What was your basis for dividing the atmosphere into layers? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What causes the temperature to increase with height in the stratosphere? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What causes the temperature to decrease with height in the mesosphere? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ What causes the temperature to decrease with height in the troposphere? ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________