What is Atmosphere? Understand your layers and training

The earth’s atmosphere has undergone a long evolution to arrive at its composition and the five layers that form it today, get to know this part of the planet in detail

Just above the earth’s surface, the atmosphere is a layer of gas critical to the existence of life on the planet. After all, it contains the air that all living things breathe. In addition, this is where climatic phenomena and processes such as the greenhouse effect🇧🇷

• It appears that the Earth will run out of oxygen faster than we thought
• Early Earth’s atmosphere may have been as toxic as that of Venus today

The atmosphere consists of 5 layers:

• Troposphere
• Stratosphere
• mesosphere
• thermosphere
• exosphere

But this gaseous layer was not always the same. OR canaltech tells how it was born and transformed to become what it is today. Next, you will learn what the layers of the atmosphere are and their characteristics.

Formation and evolution of the atmosphere

Earth’s atmosphere has changed a lot since the planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Planets form from the slow accumulation of gas and dust in the cloud that orbits a young star, and the initial composition of Earth’s atmosphere is closely related to the process of planetary formation itself.

When a planet forms, the gases it can trap to form its atmosphere depend on its gravitational pull and how fast these gases move. Earth’s early atmosphere was probably composed primarily of hydrogen, the main gas on Earth. solar nebulaas well as methane, ammonia and water vapor🇧🇷 But, since hydrogen molecules move at a very high speed, they soon left the earth’s atmosphere. Heavier molecules, which experience greater gravitational pull, cannot escape.

Over the next million years, as the planet’s surface cooled, a period of intense volcanic activity began. The gases released by volcanism have become part of the atmosphere. At this time, nitrogen and carbon dioxide become abundant. Also during this time, water vapor begins to condense and accumulate on the surface of the liquid form🇧🇷

When the oxygen arrives

The oxygen we breathe today took a few billion years to appear significantly in the atmosphere. It was from primitive life formsthat he did not need this gas to survive, that it began to be released.

About 5% of the atmosphere was oxygen around 600 million years ago and its presence now allows new life forms to emerge. This accumulation continues to a maximum of about 35% of this gas in Earth’s atmosphere 300 million years ago. Over the next 10 million years, this amount drops again until it stabilizes at around 21%, which is still present today.

In addition to oxygen, the atmosphere also contains about 78% nitrogen. The rest of its composition includes gases such as argon, carbon dioxide, among many others in much smaller quantities.

Knowing the history and composition of the atmosphere, it’s time to learn about its different layers.

The layers of the atmosphere

Scientists divide the atmosphere into five layers, according to the variation in temperature with altitude. Another variable is the concentration of gases, which decreases as one moves away from the surface: about 90% of the total mass of the atmosphere is below 16 km.

Troposphere

The layer closest to the ground is the troposphere, where living beings breathe and where phenomena related to the meteorological climate occur, such as rain, wind and hail. The temperature decreases linearly with increasing altitude in this layer, which extends up to about 17 kilometers above the ground.

Stratosphere

The second is where the ozone layer is located, which is responsible for blocking out the sun’s most dangerous ultraviolet rays. Due to the presence of this element, the temperature profile in the stratosphere is the opposite of that of the troposphere: it increases as one goes up. This layer reaches an altitude of 50 kilometers and is where jet planes fly.

mesosphere

The mesosphere again shows a decrease in temperature and its upper limit, about 80 kilometers from the surface, reaches -100 ºC. The air is extremely thin, but the molecules present are responsible for preventing meteorites from reaching the earth’s surface. Their friction with the air in the mesosphere causes them to disintegrate in this layer as well.

thermosphere

Above 80 kilometers is the thermosphere. In this layer, temperatures rise rapidly, reaching around 1,500°C. There is a large concentration of ions from solar activity and it is in this layer that the dawns🇧🇷 Its length is variable, reaching an altitude of 800 kilometers during periods when the Sun is very active. The International Space Station is also located in the thermosphere, approximately 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

exosphere

The last layer of the atmosphere, the exosphere, has no definite upper limit. It consists mainly of hydrogen and helium in very low concentrations and, together with the thermosphere, forms the so-called ionosphere🇧🇷

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Source: Terra

Camila

Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.