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dust, crystals of salt and sulfate, spores from fungi and bacteria, and other tiny fragments of
material blown up from Earth’s surface (Allaby, 2009). Earth’s atmosphere is a mixture of
gases that surrounds our home planet. Earth is the only planet in the solar system with an
atmosphere that can sustain life. The blanket of gases not only contains the air that we
breathe, but also protects us from the blasts of heat and radiation emanating from the sun
(Sharp, 2017).
By dry volume, 99.997% of the atmosphere consists of four gases, molecular nitrogen
and oxygen (N2 and O2, respectively, argon (Ar), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Chemically, Ar
is inert (nonreactive) since it is a noble gas. The other three compounds are also very stable
and nonreactive under most atmospheric conditions of temperature and pressure, so they
remain very stable components of the atmosphere. Approximately 99% of the mass of the
atmosphere lies within 50 kilometers of the earth’s surface, i.e. in the troposphere and
Earth’s atmosphere is divided into zones defined by temperature and altitude. The
lower atmosphere – the troposphere – extends from the surface of the earth to a height of
troposphere.
Figure 1. Atmospheric Regions
The upper atmosphere consists of stratosphere, the mesosphere, thermosphere and the
approximately 50 kilometers. This is a highly stable area. Little mixing of pollutants occur
here, and pollutants that enter it tend to diffuse very slowly toward the higher atmospheric
layers. The stratosphere is where ozone is formed, both naturally and by photochemical
The higher layers of the atmosphere, the mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere,
have little influence on weather patterns and pollutant transport. As the mesosphere extends
upward above the stratosphere, temperatures decrease. The coldest parts of our atmosphere
are located in this layer and can reach –90°C. In the fourth layer from Earth’s surface, the
thermosphere, the air is thin, meaning that there are far fewer air molecules. The
thermosphere is very sensitive to solar activity and can heat up to 1,500°C or higher when the
Sun is active making an aurora that lights up the night sky. Astronauts orbiting Earth in the
space station or space shuttle spend their time in this layer. The uppermost layer of our
atmosphere, where atoms and molecules escape into space, is called the exosphere (NCAR,
2003).
specific altitude generally reflects a quasi-stationary energy balance (input versus loss). The
bottom 100 km of the Earth’s atmosphere is called the homosphere, which is a region in
which major gases are well mixed. The homosphere is divided into four layers in which
temperature changes with altitude. These are, from bottom to top, the troposphere,
A. Troposphere
The troposphere is further divided into the boundary layer and the free
troposphere. The boundary layer extends from the surface to between 500 and 3000 m
altitude. All humans live in the boundary layer, so it is this region of the atmosphere
convective mixed layer, and an entrainment zone. The surface layer, which comprises
the bottom 10 percent of the boundary layer, is a region of strong change of wind
speed with height (wind shear). Because the boundary-layer depth ranges from 500 to
3000 m, the surface layer is about 50 to 300 m thick. Wind shear occurs in the surface
layer simply because wind speeds at the ground are zero and those above the ground
are not.
The convective mixed layer is the region of air just above the surface layer.
When sunlight warms the ground during the day, some of the energy is transferred
from the ground to the air just above the ground by conduction. Because the air above
the ground is now warm, it rises buoyantly as a thermal. Thermals originating from
the surface layer rise and gain their maximum acceleration in the convective mixed
layer. As thermals rise, they displace cooler air aloft downward; thus, upward and
downward motions occur, allowing air and pollutants to mix in this layer.
which is an increase in temperature with increasing height. The inversion inhibits the
rise of thermals originating from the surface layer or the mixed layer. Some mixing
(entrainment) between the inversion and mixed layer does occur; thus, the inversion
within an inversion; thus, the closer the inversion is to the ground, the higher pollutant
concentrations become.
Other features of the daytime boundary layer are the cloud and subcloud
layers. A region in which clouds appear in the boundary layer is the cloud layer, and
During the night [Fig. 3.4(b)], the ground cools radiatively, causing air
temperatures to increase with increasing height from the ground, creating a surface
inversion. Once the nighttime surface inversion forms, pollutants, when emitted, are
confined to the surface layer. Cooling at the top of the surface layer at night cools the
bottom of the mixed layer, reducing the buoyancy and associated mixing at the base
of the mixed layer. The portion of the daytime mixed layer that loses its buoyancy at
night is the nocturnal boundary layer. The remaining portion of the mixed layer is
the residual layer. Because thermals do not form at night, the residual layer does not
undergo much change at night, except at its base. At night, the nocturnal boundary
layer thickens, eroding the residual-layer base. Above the residual layer, the inversion
remains.
Free Troposphere
The free troposphere lies between the boundary layer and the tropopause. It is
a region in which, on average, the temperature decreases with increasing altitude. The
average rate of temperature decrease in the free troposphere is about 6.5 K km-1. The
temperature decreases with increasing altitude in the free troposphere for the
following reason: The ground surface receives energy from the sun daily, heating the
ground, but the top of the troposphere continuously radiates energy upward, cooling
the upper troposphere. The troposphere, itself, has relatively little capacity to absorb
solar energy; thus, it relies on energy-transfer processes from the ground to maintain
its temperature. Convective thermals from the surface transfer energy upward, but as
these thermals rise into regions of lower pressure, they expand and cool, resulting in a
tropopause base, temperatures are relatively constant with increasing height before
over the equator are colder than they are over the poles. One reason is that the higher
base of the ozone layer over the equator allows tropospheric temperatures to cool to a
greater altitude over the equator than over the poles. A second reason is that lower-
and mid-tropospheric water vapor contents are much higher over the equator than they
are over the poles. Water vapor absorbs thermal-IR radiation emitted from the Earth’s
tropopause base, temperatures are relatively constant with increasing height before
Stratosphere
which absorbs the sun’s UV radiation and reemits thermal-IR radiation, heating the
because this is the altitude at which ozone absorbs the shortest UV wavelengths
reaching the stratosphere (about 0.175 _m). Although the ozone content at the top of
the stratosphere is low, each ozone molecule can absorb short wavelengths, increasing
the average kinetic energy and, thus, temperature (through Equation 3.1) of all
Mesosphere
the free troposphere. Ozone densities are too low, in comparison with those of oxygen
and nitrogen, for ozone absorption of UV radiation to affect the average temperature
Thermosphere
and N2(g) absorb very short far-UV wavelengths in this region. Peak temperatures in
the thermosphere range from 1,200 to 2,000 K, depending on solar activity. Air in the
thermosphere does not feel hot to the skin because the thermosphere contains so few
gas molecules. Because each gas molecule in the thermosphere is highly energized,
the average temperature is high. Because molecular oxygen and nitrogen absorb very
mesosphere.