Objectives

1. Discuss the composition of Earth’s atmosphere.

2. Discuss the temperature structure and atmospheric region.

3. Lastly, discuss the evolution of Earth’s gases.

The Atmosphere and Its Regions

Air is a substance, a mixture of gases, together with droplets of water, particles of

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

stratosphere. This is where the air pollution occurs (Vallero, ).

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

approximately 15 kilometers. Most weather we experience on earth’s surface occurs in the

troposphere.
 Figure 1. Atmospheric Regions

The upper atmosphere consists of stratosphere, the mesosphere, thermosphere and the

exosphere. The stratosphere is a stable layer of atmosphere extending to a height of

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

processes. Stratospheric ozone is essential to life on earth because it absorbs ultraviolet

radiation that would be harmful to biological organisms.

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).

Temperature Structure in the Atmospheric Regions

Temperature is a measure of the internal energy of air, and the temperature at a

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,

stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere.

Figure 2. Temperature structure of the Earth’s homosphere

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

in which pollution buildup is of the most concern.

Figure 3. Variation of temperature with height during the (a) day and (b) night in the
atmospheric boundary layer

During the day, the boundary layer is characterized by a surface layer, a

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.

The top of the mixed layer is often bounded by a temperature inversion,

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

layer is called an entrainment zone. Pollutants are generally trapped beneath or

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

the region underneath is the subcloud layer.

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

decrease of temperature with increasing height in the troposphere.

The tropopause is the upper boundary of the troposphere. Above the

tropopause base, temperatures are relatively constant with increasing height before

increasing with increasing height in the stratosphere. Temperatures at the tropopause

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

surface, preventing that radiation from reaching the upper troposphere.

The tropopause is the upper boundary of the troposphere. Above the

tropopause base, temperatures are relatively constant with increasing height before

increasing with increasing height in the stratosphere.

Stratosphere

The stratosphere is a large temperature inversion. The inversion is caused by ozone,

which absorbs the sun’s UV radiation and reemits thermal-IR radiation, heating the

stratosphere. Peak stratospheric temperatures occur at the top of the stratosphere

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

molecules. Short UV wavelengths do not penetrate to the lower stratosphere. Ozone

densities in the stratosphere peak at 25 to 32 km.

Mesosphere

Temperatures decrease with increasing altitude in the mesosphere just as they do in

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

of all molecules in the mesosphere.

Thermosphere

In the thermosphere, temperatures increase with increasing altitude because O2(g)

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

short wavelengths in the thermosphere, such wavelengths do not penetrate to the

mesosphere.