Lecture 1: A brief history of atmospheric science

1. Early history of atmospheric chemistry

2. What is the nature of air?
3. Vegetable staticks
4. Dr. Joseph Black (17281799)
5. The problem of combustion
6. Henry Cavendish (17311810)
7. The discovery of oxygen
8. Joseph Priestley (17331804)
9. Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (17431794)

Lecture 2:The birth and evolution of our atmosphere
1. The Earth System
2. In the Beginning
3. Has the Earths Atmosphere changed?
4. The Noble Gases
5. The Secondary Atmosphere
6. Evolution of the Secondary Atmosphere
7. The Emergence of Life
8. When did Life evolve on Earth?
9. Where did Life evolve on Earth?
10. Photosynthesis
11. Oxygen and Ozone

Lecture 3: The basic physical and chemical structure of the atmosphere
1. Atmospheric pressure
2. Why does the pressure fall with altitude?
3. The hydrostatic equation
4. Temperature versus altitude
5. Lon Teisserenc de Bort (1855 1913)
6. The vertical temperature structure
7. Temperature versus latitude and season
8. Zonal-mean wind distribution
9. The meridional circulation
10. Methane distribution
11. Nomenclature
12. Vertical ozone profile Basic chemical composition

Lecture 4: Biogeochemical cycles Part I
1. The Earth system
2. Cycles within the Earth system
3. The impact of life on the atmosphere
4. What is a biogeochemical cycle?
5. The global water cycle
6. The global carbon cycle
7. Colours of life
8. Balancing the carbon budget
9. The global nitrogen cycle
10. Changes to the equilibrium

Lecture 5: Chemical reactions
1. Chemistry
2. Chemical kinetics
3. Factors that determine the reaction rate
4. Reaction rate: Example 1
5. Reaction rate: Example 2
6. Dependence of rate on concentration
7. Extablishing a rate law
8. Rate laws and reaction orders
9. Rates also depend on temperature
10. Activation energy
11. Reaction mechanisms
12. Elementary steps
13. Molecularity
14. Rate laws of elementary steps
15. Rate laws and multi-step mechanisms
16. Example: A two-step mechanism
17. Catalysis
18. Appendix: Oscillating reactions

Lecture 6: Photochemical reactions
1. Solar radiation
2. Properties of light waves
3. Electromagnetic spectrum
4. The solar spectrum
5. Solar spectrum at the Earths surface
6. Absorption spectrum at the Earths surface
7. Photochemical reactions
8. Factors that affect the photolysis rate
9. Example: Ozone absorbance
10. Scattering of light
11. Red sky at night?
12. Haze

Lecture 7: Biogeochemical Cycles Part II
1. Introduction
2. Terrestrial organic carbon cycle
3. Carbon reservoir dynamics
4. Short-term terrestrial organic carbon cycle
5. Short-term marine organic carbon cycle
6. Long-term organic carbon cycle
7. Inorganic carbon cycle
8. Carbonate silicate geochemical cycle

Lecture 8: Stratospheric Ozone Part I
1. UV irradiance
2. Protection of the biosphere
3. The discovery of ozone
4. Christian F. Schnbein (17991868)
5. Unravelling ozones composition
6. Identifying ozone in the atmosphere
7. The optical properties of ozone
8. Gordon M. B. Dobson (18891976)
9. The vertical ozone distribution
10. Sydney Chapman (18881970)
11. The Chapman mechanism

Lecture 9: Stratospheric Ozone Part II
1. The Chapman mechanism revisited
2. Odd oxygen
3. The ozone profile
4. The vertical ozone distribution
5. The total ozone column
6. The failure of the Chapman mechanism
7. Catalytic odd oxygen loss
8. Appendix A: Chemical lifetime