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what is the composition of the atmosphere

by Dr. Tre Hahn II Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Composition of the Atmosphere

Composition of Atmosphere Chemical Formula Percent Volume
Nitrogen N 2 78.08%
Oxygen O 2 20.95%
Water (variable gas) H 2 0 to 4%
Argon Ar 0.934%
Aug 31 2022

Earth's atmosphere is composed of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and one percent other gases. These gases are found in layers (troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere) defined by unique features such as temperature and pressure.May 19, 2022

Full Answer

What is the Earth's First atmosphere primarily compose of?

At its initial formation, the Earth's first atmosphere was composed primarily of the light elements hydrogen and helium . A. A gas B. A cloud droplet C. A rain drop

What are the 5 layers of the atmosphere in order?

What Are The 5 Layers Of The Earth's Atmosphere?

  1. Troposphere. This is the first and the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. ...
  2. Stratosphere. If we start from the top of the troposphere and go further into the sky, we reach the layer known as the stratosphere.
  3. Mesosphere. As the name suggests, we are halfway up our atmosphere layers when we reach this part. ...
  4. Thermosphere. ...
  5. Exosphere. ...

What are the primary constituents of the atmosphere?

  • The ozone layer is contained within the stratosphere. In this layer ozone concentrations are about 2 to 8 parts per million, which is much higher than in the lower atmosphere ...
  • The ionosphere is a region of the atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation. ...
  • The homosphere and heterosphere are defined by whether the atmospheric gases are well mixed. ...

What are the most common elements in the atmosphere?

What elements are in the atmosphere?

  • Nitrogen — 78 percent.
  • Oxygen — 21 percent.
  • Argon — 0.93 percent.
  • Carbon dioxide — 0.04 percent.
  • Trace amounts of neon, helium, methane, krypton and hydrogen, as well as water vapor.

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What is the percent composition of the atmosphere?

By volume, the dry air in Earth's atmosphere is about 78.09 percent nitrogen, 20.95 percent oxygen, and 0.93 percent argon. A brew of trace gases accounts for the other 0.03 percent, including the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone.

What is the composition of the atmosphere Grade 7?

The Earth's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen: 78% to be exact, 21% of the atmosphere is the oxygen that we breathe, 0.9% argon, and 0.04% carbon dioxide.

What is the composition of the atmosphere Class 6?

Composition of Atmosphere – Gases in the Atmosphere Dry air from earth's atmosphere contains 0.038% of carbon dioxide, 20.95% of oxygen, 78.08% of nitrogen and 0.93% of argon.

Why is the composition of the atmosphere important?

The significance of atmospheric composition is the absorption of some sun irradiation and its return to the Earth's surface so as to increase temperature. This is referred to as the greenhouse effect, leading to global warming.

What is atmosphere short answer?

An atmosphere is the layers of gases surrounding a planet or other celestial body. Earth's atmosphere is composed of about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and one percent other gases.

What is the composition of atmosphere PDF?

The atmosphere of earth is composed of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), argon (0.9%), carbon dioxide (0.04%) and trace gases.

What is atmosphere Class 6 short answer?

Answer: Atmosphere is a blanket of air surrounding the Earth's surface. Atmosphere contains oxygen which is essential for animals to breathe and get energy from food. It also contains carbon dioxide which is used by the plants to make their own food.

What is the composition of air Class 5?

Nitrogen has the highest percentage of 78.09%, followed by oxygen of 20.95%, argon of 0.93%, carbon dioxide of 0.04%, and other gases in meagre amounts. Air also contains water vapour in varying amounts, along with dust particles.

What is the composition of atmosphere Class 11?

Answer: The atmosphere is composed of gases, water vapour and dust particles. Nitrogen constitutes 78.8%, oxygen contributes 20.94% and argon contributes 0.93% in atmosphere. Other gases include carbon dioxide, helium, ozone, methane, hydrogen, krypton, xenon and neon, etc.

What is the composition of atmosphere Brainly?

Answer. Earth's atmosphere is composed of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Argon, and the remaining percentage is mainly gases such as carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, and others, as well as traces of water vapor.

What is the composition of the atmosphere and is it changing?

The most common gases are nitrogen, oxygen and argon. But, the exact amount of each gas is always changing. Since the industrial revolution, humans have caused a big change in the composition of the atmosphere and significantly increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

What is the composition of the earth?

​​The earth is made up of three different layers: the crust, the mantle and the core. This is the outside layer of the earth and is made of solid rock, mostly basalt and granite. There are two types of crust; oceanic and continental. Oceanic crust is denser and thinner and mainly com​posed of basalt.

What is atmosphere Class 7 questions and answers?

Answer: (i) The huge blanket of air surrounding the Earth is called atmosphere. (ii) Nitrogen and oxygen make the bulk of the atmosphere. (iii) Carbon dioxide creates greenhouse effect in the atmosphere.

What is the composition of atmosphere Brainly?

Answer. Earth's atmosphere is composed of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Argon, and the remaining percentage is mainly gases such as carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, and others, as well as traces of water vapor.

What is composition and structure of the atmosphere Grade 10?

The atmosphere is a mixture of different types of gases. Nitrogen and oxygen are the two main gases in the atmosphere and 99 percentage of the atmosphere is made up of these two gases. Other gases like argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, hydrogen, etc. form the remaining part of the atmosphere.

What is the composition of the earth?

​​The earth is made up of three different layers: the crust, the mantle and the core. This is the outside layer of the earth and is made of solid rock, mostly basalt and granite. There are two types of crust; oceanic and continental. Oceanic crust is denser and thinner and mainly com​posed of basalt.

How was the atmosphere formed?

It is believed that there was intense volcanic activity for the first billion years of the Earth's existence. Its early atmosphere was probably formed from the gases given out by volcanoes.

What are the gases in the air?

Some of the gases in the air are elements: 1 nitrogen, N2 2 oxygen, O2 3 argon, Ar 4 neon, Ne

What are the gases in the atmosphere of Mars?

It is thought that the atmospheres of Mars and Venus today, which contain mostly carbon dioxide, are similar to the early atmosphere of the Earth.

Why does the proportion of oxygen increase?

The proportion of oxygen increased because of photosynthesis by plants. The proportion of ammonia decreased as it reacted with the newly formed oxygen in the atmosphere to form nitrogen and water vapour. The proportion of methane decreased as it reacted with the newly formed oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water.

What are some examples of early atmospheres?

Scientists can’t be sure about the early atmosphere and can only draw evidence from other sources. For example, volcanoes release high quantities of carbon dioxide. Iron-based compounds are present in very old rocks that could only have formed if there was little or no oxygen at the time.

Is air a mixture?

The air is a mixture of gases. The amount of water vapour in the air varies from place to place, and day to day. For this reason, the proportions of the gases in the air are usually given for dry air. Note that these gases can be extracted from the air for various uses using fractional distillation.

What are the elements in the atmosphere?

As per the NASA, the composition of the earth’s atmosphere is as mentioned below: Trace amounts of neon, helium, methane, krypton and hydrogen, as well as water vapor.

What are some interesting facts about the atmosphere?

Salient Facts about Earth’s Atmosphere. Atmosphere is described as the air that surrounds the earth. The thickness of the earth’s atmosphere is about 480 kms. 99 percent of the thickness lies upto the hieght of 32 kms from the earth. With increasing altitude, the air pressure decreases. The atmosphere has mixture of gases ...

Why are dust particles in high concentration in temperate and subtropical regions?

Dust particles are in higher concentration in temperate and subtropical regions due to dry winds in contrast to the Polar Regions and equatorial regions. They act as hygroscopic nuclei over which water vapour of atmosphere condenses to create clouds.

How does ozone work?

Present around 10-50 km above earth surface and acts as a sieve, absorbing UV (ultraviolet rays) from the sun. Ozone averts the harmful rays from reaching the surface of the earth.

Why do plants use oxygen?

Plants use it to make oxygen. It is significant as it is opaque to outgoing terrestrial radiation and transparent to incoming solar radiation. It is also blameable for the greenhouse effect. Composition of the atmosphere (UPSC Notes):- Download PDF Here.

How far away is oxygen from Earth?

The presence of oxygen becomes insignificant at the height of 120 km from the surface of the earth with respect to the composition of the atmosphere. Water vapour and Carbon dioxide occur only up to 90 km.

How much oxygen is in the atmosphere?

The atmosphere is composed of 21% oxygen.

How high is the atmosphere?

Now, our atmosphere has no definite upper boundary, but nearly all of the mass of the atmosphere lies below an altitude of 50 kilometers (a little more than 30 miles above Earth's surface).

What percentage of the atmosphere is dry?

However, nitrogen and oxygen, combined, account for roughly 99 percent of "dry air" in the atmosphere, so they're the "big two" in terms of total concentration. Of course, air isn't perfectly "dry.".

What does "permanent" mean in the atmosphere?

Some of the gases are "permanent," meaning that their concentrations are basically constant. Other gases are "variable," meaning that their concentrations vary from time to time and place to place. I've summarized the gases that comprise our atmosphere and their concentrations in the table below:

Is oxygen the most abundant gas in the atmosphere?

First of all, even though we need to breathe oxygen to survive, oxygen is not the most abundant gas in the atmosphere. Nitrogen is, by far. There's nearly four times as much nitrogen as there is oxygen!

Is the atmosphere thin?

Well, the atmosphere is actually quite thin (when you compare it to the size of the earth) even though it seems so vast to us standing on the ground. This high-resolution view of Earth and its atmosphere shows the thin atmosphere surrounding our planet, just as the skin of an apple surrounds the fruit inside.

What are the gases in the atmosphere?

Gases in Earth's Atmosphere. Nitrogen and oxygen are by far the most common; dry air is composed of about 78% nitrogen (N 2) and about 21% oxygen (O 2 ). Argon, carbon dioxide (CO 2), and many other gases are also present in much lower amounts; each makes up less than 1% of the atmosphere's mixture of gases. The atmosphere also includes water vapor.

What are the different layers of the atmosphere?

There are several different regions or layers in Earth's atmosphere. Each has characteristic temperatures, pressures, and phenomena. We live in the troposphere , the lowest layer, where most clouds are found and almost all weather occurs. Some jet aircraft fly in the next higher layer, the stratosphere, which contains the jet streams and the ozone layer. Temperatures reacj their lowest in the mesosphere, because the there are almost no air molecules there to absorb heat energy. The sky also changes from blue to black in the mesosphere, because there are so few molecules for light to refract off of there. And fartherst from the surface we have the thermosphere , which is the widest layer of the atmosphere and absorbs much of the harmful radiation that reaches Earth from th Sun. The exosphere represents the transition from Earth's atmosphere to space.

Why is the atmosphere important?

Besides providing us with something to breathe, it shields us from most of the harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation coming from the Sun, warms the surface of our planet by about 33° C (59° F) via the greenhouse effect, and largely prevents extreme differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures. The other planets in our solar system also have an atmosphere, but none of them have the same ratio of gases and layered structure as Earth's atmosphere.

How does the atmosphere change?

The atmosphere grows thinner (less dense and lower in pressure) as one moves upward from Earth's surface. It gradually gives way to the vacuum of outer space. There is no precise "top" of the atmosphere. Air becomes so thin at altitudes between 100 and 120 km (62-75 miles) up that for many purposes that range of heights can be considered the boundary between the atmosphere and space. However, there are very thin but measurable traces of atmospheric gases hundreds of kilometers/miles above Earth's surface.

What is the average amount of water vapor in the atmosphere?

The atmosphere also includes water vapor. The amount of water vapor present varies a lot, but on average is around 1%. There are also many small particles - solids and liquids - "floating" in the atmosphere.

Which layer of the atmosphere absorbs the most harmful radiation?

And fartherst from the surface we have the thermosphere , which is the widest layer of the atmosphere and absorbs much of the harmful radiation that reaches Earth from th Sun. The exosphere represents the transition from Earth's atmosphere to space.

Which planets have a thinner atmosphere?

The smaller, rocky planets - Earth, Venus and Mars - have much thinner atmospheres hovering above their solid surfaces. The atmospheres on moons in our solar sytem are typically quite thin. Saturn's moon Titan is an exception - air pressure at the surface of Titan is higher than on Earth!

1. Gases

Gases may be constant (Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon) as their concentration has remained approximately the same in the near history of our earth.

2. Dust Particles

These are mostly concentrated in the lower layers of the atmosphere but vertical air currents transport them to heights. They may originate from soil, soot, pollen, etc. They may act as hygroscopic nuclei for the formation of clouds.

3. Water Vapour

The concentration of water vapour keeps on fluctuating in the atmosphere which makes it a variable component. It ranges from 0.02% (deserts or dry climates) to 4% (in humid climates).

1. Troposphere

The lowest layer of the atmosphere i.e. Troposphere extends from 8 km to 18 km in height. Its height is thinner near poles and thicker near the equator. The various climatic phenomenon occurs in the layer which is responsible for the weather change on the surface.

2. Stratosphere

This is the second layer of the atmosphere that rests upon the troposphere and below the mesosphere. Literal meaning of the word ‘ STRAT ‘ is a layer. The stratosphere is divided into its own set of layers and as there is no turbulence or storm present here to mix up the air so the heavier cold layer lies below the lighter warm air.

3. Mesosphere

This layer rests upon Stratosphere and below Thermosphere. The term ‘MESO’ means middle. In this layer the gases are mixed up rather than separated on the basis of their masses. The thickness of this layer is 80 km. When we move above in this particular layer the temperature may fall down up to -100°C at the extreme end of this layer.

4. Thermosphere

This layer rests upon Mesosphere and below the Exosphere. The meaning of the term ‘THERMO’ is heat. The temperature in this layer may reach up to 4500°F. The layer is so cold due to the absence of enough gases to transfer the heat. Sound waves cannot travel in this layer due to the absence of enough number of molecules.

What is the composition of the atmosphere?

Dry air from earth’s atmosphere contains 0.038% of carbon dioxide, 20.95% of oxygen, 78.08% of nitrogen and 0.93% of argon.

What is the atmosphere?

An atmosphere is a blanket of gases that surrounds Earth. It is held near the surface of the planet by Earth’s gravitational attraction. Argon, oxygen and nitrogen from the three main constitutions of the atmosphere. There is no boundary between the atmosphere and outer space.

What would happen if the Earth’s Atmosphere disappeared?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Earth lost its atmosphere? Here is a breakdown of what could happen:

What are the layers of the atmosphere?

The atmosphere has five distinct layers that are determined by the changes in temperature that happen with increasing altitude. Layers of Earth’s atmosphere are divided into five different layers as: 1 Exosphere 2 Thermosphere 3 Mesosphere, 4 Stratosphere 5 Troposphere.

Why do jet planes fly in the stratosphere?

The jet planes fly in the lower stratosphere because of less turbulence in the stratosphere leading to a smooth ride. Planes usually flow near the border between the troposphere and the stratosphere.

Why do clouds appear in the troposphere?

Most clouds appear in this layer because 99% of the water vapour in the atmosphere is found here. Temperature and air pressure drop as you go higher in the troposphere. When a parcel of air moves upwards it expands. When air expands it cools.

Why is the troposphere warmer than the base?

Due to this reason, the base of the troposphere is warmer than its base because the air in the surface of the Earth absorbs the sun’s energy, gets heated up and moves upward as a result of which it cools down.

What is the composition of the atmosphere?

Composition of Earth's atmosphere by volume, excluding water vapor. Lower pie represents trace gases that together compose about 0.043391% of the atmosphere (0.04402961% at April 2019 concentration ). Numbers are mainly from 2000, with CO. 2 and methane from 2019, and do not represent any single source.

What is the atmosphere of Earth?

The atmosphere of Earth, commonly known as air, is the layer of gases retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for liquid water to exist on the Earth's surface, absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, ...

How did plate tectonics influence the long-term evolution of the atmosphere?

The constant re-arrangement of continents by plate tectonics influences the long-term evolution of the atmosphere by transferring carbon dioxide to and from large continental carbonate stores. Free oxygen did not exist in the atmosphere until about 2.4 billion years ago during the Great Oxygenation Event and its appearance is indicated by the end of the banded iron formations .

What is the study of the atmosphere called?

The study of Earth's atmosphere and its processes is called atmospheric science (aerology), and includes multiple subfields, such as climatology and atmospheric physics. Early pioneers in the field include Léon Teisserenc de Bort and Richard Assmann. The study of historic atmosphere is called paleoclimatology .

How much water vapor is in the atmosphere?

The concentration of water vapor (a greenhouse gas) varies significantly from around 10 ppm by volume in the coldest portions of the atmosphere to as much as 5% by volume in hot, humid air masses, and concentrations of other atmospheric gases are typically quoted in terms of dry air (without water vapor).

How much does the atmosphere weigh?

The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15 × 10 18 kg, three quarters of which is within about 11 km (6.8 mi; 36,000 ft) of the surface. The atmosphere becomes thinner with increasing altitude, with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space.

How much nitrogen is in air?

By volume, dry air contains 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere. Air composition, temperature, and atmospheric pressure vary with altitude.

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