Presentation For Earth Science

Chapter 7
“The Earth’s Atmosphere: Structure and
Composition’’

Prepared By:
Group 7
 Atmosphere of the Earth

The atmosphere of Earth is a layer of Gases

surrounding the planet Earth that is retained
by Earth's Gravity. The atmosphere protects
life on earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar
radiation, warming the surface through heat
retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing
temperature extremes between day and night.
Gases that are most important to man are:
 
• Nitrogen- a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic
gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of
Earth’s atmosphere.
• Oxygen- the third most abundant element in the universe after
hydrogen and helium and;
- the most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust,
making up almost half of the crust's mass.
• Helium- a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert monatomic
gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table.
Atmospheric Stratification describes the structure of the
atmosphere, dividing it into distinct layers, each with
specific characteristics such as temperature or composition.
The atmosphere has a mass of about 5×1018 kg, three
quarters of which is within about 11 km (6.8 mi; 36,000 ft)
of the surface. The atmosphere becomes thinner and
thinner with increasing altitude, with no definite boundary
between the atmosphere and outer space. An altitude of
120 km (75 mi) is where atmospheric effects become
noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft.
 Composition of the atmosphere
Air is mainly composed of nitrogen, oxygen,
and argon, which together constitute the major
gases of the atmosphere.
The remaining gases are often referred to as
trace gases, among which are the greenhouse
gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide,
methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Filtered air
includes trace amounts of many chemical compounds.
Many natural substances may be present in tiny
amounts in an unfiltered air sample, including dust,
pollen and spores, sea spray, and volcanic ash. Various
industrial pollutants also may be present, such as
chlorine (elementary or in compounds), fluorine
compounds, elemental mercury, and sulfur
compounds such as sulfur dioxide [SO2].
Layers of The
Atmosphere
Troposphere
-begins at the surface
-extends to between 9 km (30,000 ft) at the
poles and 17 km (56,000 ft) at the equator,
with some variation due to weather.
-mostly heated by transfer of energy from
the surface, so on average the lowest part of the
troposphere is warmest and temperature
decreases with altitude.
-The troposphere contains roughly 80% of
the mass of the atmosphere.
Stratosphere
-extends from the tropopause to about 51 km
(32 mi; 170,000 ft). Temperature increases
with height due to increased absorption of
ultraviolet radiation by the ozone layer, which
restricts turbulence and mixing. While the
temperature may be −60 °C (−76 °F; 213.2 K)
at the troposphere, the top of the stratosphere is
much warmer, and may be near freezing. The
stratopause, which is the boundary between the
stratosphere and mesosphere, typically is at 50
to 55 km (31 to 34 mi; 160,000 to 180,000 ft).
The pressure here is 1/1000 sea level.
Ionosphere
-the part of the atmosphere that is
ionized by solar radiation, stretches from
50 to 1,000 km (31 to 620 mi; 160,000 to
3,300,000 ft) and typically overlaps both
the exosphere and the thermosphere.
It forms the inner edge of the
magnetosphere.
It has practical importance because it
influences, for example, radio propagation
on the Earth. It is responsible for auroras.
Exosphere
The outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere
extends from the exobase upward. It is
mainly composed of hydrogen and helium.
The particles are so far apart that they can
travel hundreds of kilometres without
colliding with one another. Since the
particles rarely collide, the atmosphere no
longer behaves like a fluid. These free-
moving particles follow ballistic trajectories
and may migrate into and out of the
magnetosphere or the solar wind.
Clouds
 CLOUD FORMATION
 A cloud is a visible mass of water
droplets or frozen ice crystals suspended
in the Earth's atmosphere above the
surface of the Earth or other planetary
body. Clouds are masses of cooled water
vapor floating in the atmosphere.
 Types of clouds

The most convenient method of classification of

clouds is
based on the altitude. The major cloud types and
their principal
subdivision are as follows:
1. High Clouds- the bases of these clouds are at an
altitude above 6,000 meters or higher. Composed of
ice crystals and are generally clean. Outline of the
san or mood maybe seen through the principal
forms:
a. Cirrus- thin, feather-like clouds with a delicate
appearance frequently arrange in bands across the
sky sometimes called marestales.
b. Cirrocumulus- like patches of cotton or a mass
of small white flakes frequently in groups or lines
sometimes called mackerel sky.
c. Cirrostratus- whitish layer, like a sheet of veil
giving the sky a milky appearance. Theyoften
produce a halo around the sun of moon.
2. Middle Clouds- found at heights ranging from
2,000 to 6,000 meters. the principal forms are:
 
a. Altocumulus- gray to bluish layers of
clouds, often with lumpy appearance formed
at a high level.
b. Altostratus- thin gray to bluish layers of
clouds.
3. Low Clouds- range from near the surface to
about 2,000 meters.
a. Stratus- low, uniform sheet-like cloud
similar to fog but not resting on the ground.
b. Stratocumulus- large rounded clouds with
a soft appearance, usually arranged in some
pattern with spaces in between.
c. Nimbostratus- low, shapeless, thick
layers, dark gray in color, usually
accompanied by rain or snow.
4. Clouds With Vertical Development-
called clouds of vertical development, these
clouds are related to one another and are
associated with unstable air.
 FORMATION OF PRECIPITATION

• Moisture is evaporated from the ocean

• Moisture rises in the air convection current
• The air cools as it rises
• Moisture condenses into rain
 The Bergeron process

In order for the Bergeron Process to occur, supercooled water droplets
and ice crystals must be present together in the cloud.
The Bergeron Process often results in precipitation. As the crystals grow
and fall, they pass through the base of the cloud, which may be above
freezing. This causes the crystals to melt and fall as rain. There also may
be a layer of air below freezing below the cloud base, causing the
precipitation to refreeze in the form of ice pellets. Similarly, the layer of
air below freezing may be at the surface, causing the precipitation to fall
as freezing rain. The process may also result in no precipitation,
evaporating before it reaches the ground, in the case of forming virga.
 Collision-coalescence

Process occurs when the raindrops formed are warm clouds (above 0 degree
Celsius ) where big cloud droplets collide and join together with smaller
droplets to form raindrops.
One theory explaining how the behavior of individual droplets leads to the
formation of clouds is the collision-coalescence process. Droplets suspended
in the air will interact with each other, either by colliding and bouncing off
each other or by combining to form a larger droplet. Eventually, the droplets
become large enough that they fall to the earth as precipitation. The
collision-coalescence process does not make up a significant part of cloud
formation as water droplets have a relatively high surface tension.
 Forms of
Precipitation
1. Sleet -a wintertime phenomenon.
– Refers to the fall of small, clear to
translucent particles of ice.
Produced through:
1. a layer of air with temperatures above
freezing overlies a subfreezing layer near
the ground.
2. when the raindrops, which are often
melted snow, leave the warmer air and
encounter the colder air below, they
solidify and reach the ground as small
pellets of ice not larger than the raindrops
from which they were formed.
2. Hail- precipitation in the form of hard
rounded pellets or irregular lumps of ice.
Large hailstones often consist of a series of
nearly concentric shells of differing densities
and degrees of opaqueness. Have a diameter of
about 1cm, but vary in size from 5mm to more
than 10cm in diameter. Produce only in
cumulonimbus clouds where updrafts are strong
and where there is an abundant supply of
super cooled water.
Produced through:
First, rain is lifted above the freezing level
by the rapidly ascending air
Second, small ice granules grow by
collecting super cooled cloud droplets as they
fall through the clouds.
3.Snow- most common form of
solid precipitation
- forms when falling ice
crystals fail to melt before
reaching the ground
 FOG
 Clouds with its base at or very near the ground.
While fog is a type of a cloud, the term "fog" is
typically distinguished from the more generic term
"cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the
fog is often generated locally (such as from a nearby
body of water, like a lake or the ocean, or from nearby
moist ground or marshes).
Characteristics
Fog forms when the difference between temperature and down points
generally less than 2.5 °C or 4 F.
Fog begins to form when water vapor condenses into tiny liquid water droplets
in the air.

Visibility hazard
Shadows- Shadows are cast through fog in three dimensions. The fog is dense
enough to be illuminated by light that passes through gaps in a structure or
tree, but thin enough to let a large quantity of that light pass through to
illuminate points further on. As a result, object shadows appear as "beams"
oriented in a direction parallel to the light source.
 Types of Fog
• Radiation fog is formed by the cooling of land after
sunset by thermal radiation in calm conditions with
clear sky.
• Ground fog is fog that obscures less than 60% of the
sky and does not extend to the base of any overhead
clouds.
• Advection fog occurs when moist air passes over a
cool surface by advection (wind) and is cooled.
• Precipitation fog (or frontal fog) forms as
precipitation falls into drier air below the cloud, the
liquid droplets evaporate into water vapor.
• Upslope fog or hill fog forms when winds blow air
up a slope (called orographic lift), adiabatically cooling
it as it rises, and causing the moisture in it to condense.
• Valley fog forms in mountains valley, often during
winter. It is the result of a temperature inversion caused
by heavier cold air settling into a valley, with warmer
air passing over the mountains above.
• Freezing fog occurs when liquid fog droplets
freeze to surfaces, forming white soft or hard rime.
• Frozen fog (also known as Ice fog) is any kind
of fog where the droplets have frozen into extremely
tiny crystals of ice in midair. Generally this requires
temperatures at or below −35 °C (−30 °F), making it
common only in and near the Arctic and Antarctic
regions.
• Artificial fog is artificially generated fog that is
usually created by vaporizing a water and glycol-
based or glycerine-based fluid.
• Garua fog is a type of fog which happens to
occur by the coast of Chile and Peru.
• Hail fog sometimes occurs in the vicinity of
significant hail accumulations due to decreased
temperature and increased moisture leading to
saturation in a very shallow layer near the surface.
• Ice Fog or Pogonip is rare, but can occur when
temperatures are below -40 °C (-40 °F), when ice
crystals freeze while suspended in the air, then stay.
Climate and Weather of the
Philippines
Weather - condition of the atmosphere at a particular time .
Thought of in terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation,
cloudiness, brightness, visibility, and wind on a certain day or hour.
Climate- long term manifestation of weather
• Statistical collective weather condition during a specified
interval of time, usually decades.
• Includes the long-term average conditions, the extremes as well
as variability of weather elements such as the highest and
lowest temperatures, the greatest amount of rainfall recorded,
etc.
 The prevailing wind systems over the Philippines are as follows:
 

 
a. The Northern Monsoon (Northeast Monsoon)
-from November to February
b. The Southwest Monsoon
-comes from the southwest
-prevails during the months of July, August and September.
c. The Trades Or Trade Winds
-prevailing wind systems over the tropics.
-come from the east
-prevail during the rest of the year and whenever the northeast monsoon
and southwest monsoon are weak.
CLIMATES OF THE WORLD
 2. Middle Latitude Climate-
located between 30 degrees and
65 degrees latitude, average
1. Tropical Climate - located within 30 temperature is 10 degrees
degrees above and below the equator Celsius
-it is where the sun is nearly overhead Includes:
at noon.  Mediterranean
Includes:  humid subtropical
» tropical rainforests  marine west coast
» savannah  humid continental
» tropical desert  dry continental
» tropical steppe  subarctic
3. Polar Climate- close to the poles, the sun is not seen,
bringing winter for as long as 6 months
-the temperature of the warmest month is
below 10 degrees Celsius and it is known for
its enduring cold.
Includes:
» Tundra
» ice cap
END