Module 1 The Earth’s Atmosphere

Overview
This module presents the vastness of the Earth’s Atmosphere including its
components, the flow of energy and its effect to the atmosphere, seasons and the
daily temperature of the earth.

Chapter Objectives
A. Distinguish the Earth’s Atmosphere and its components
B. Describe the flow of energy in the atmosphere and its effect to earth weather
and climate
C. Explain seasonal and daily temperature

Lesson 1: The Earth and Its Atmosphere

I. Pre-discussion
The earth without an atmosphere would have no lakes or oceans. There
would be no sounds, no clouds, no red sunsets. The beautiful pageantry of the sky
would be absent. It would be unimaginably cold at night and unbearably hot during
the day. All things on the earth would be at the mercy of an intense sun beating down
upon a planet utterly parched.
Living on the surface of the earth, we have adapted so completely to our
environment of air that we sometimes forget how truly remarkable this substance is.
Even though air is tasteless, odorless, and (most of the time) invisible, it protects us
from the scorching rays of the sun and provides us with a mixture of gases that
allows life to flourish. Because we cannot see, smell, or taste air, it may seem
surprising that between your eyes and the pages of this book are trillions of air
molecules. Some of these may have been in a cloud only yesterday, or over another
continent last week, or perhaps part of the lifegiving breath of a person who lived
hundreds of years ago
Meteorology is the study of the atmosphere and its phenomena. The term
itself goes back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle who, about 340 b.c., wrote a book
on natural philosophy entitled Meteorologica.

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 In those days, all substances that fell from the sky, and anything seen in the
air, were called meteors, hence the term meteorology, which actually comes from the
Greek word meteoros, meaning “high in the air.”
Today, we differentiate between those meteors that come from extraterrestrial
sources outside our atmosphere (meteoroids) and particles of water and ice
observed in the atmosphere (hydrometeors).

II. What to Expect

a. Describe the Earth’s atmospheric composition
b. Familiarize the brief history of the Earth’s atmosphere
c. Recognize the value of weather and climate in our lives

III. Lesson Outline

A. Stimulating Prior Knowledge
Write and connect words that you may associate with the topic below. Discuss your
idea to the class.

ATMOSPHERE

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B. Lesson Proper
The Atmosphere
Our atmosphere is a delicate life-giving blanket of air that surrounds the
fragile earth. The earth without an atmosphere would have no lakes or oceans. There
would be no sounds, no clouds, no red sunsets.
Radiant energy (or radiation) * that drives the atmosphere into the patterns of
everyday wind and weather and allows the earth to maintain an average surface
temperature of about 15°C (59°F).
The earth’s atmosphere is a thin, gaseous envelope comprised mostly of
nitrogen and oxygen, with small amounts of other gases, such as water vapor and
carbon dioxide.
Nestled in the atmosphere are clouds of liquid water and ice crystals. There is
no definite upper limit to the atmosphere; rather, it becomes thinner and thinner,
eventually merging with empty space, which surrounds all the planets.

The Early Atmosphere

The earth’s first atmosphere (some 4.6billion years ago) was most likely
hydrogen and helium — the two most abundant gases found in the universe — as
well as hydrogen compounds, such as methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3). Most
scientists feel that this early atmosphere escaped into space from the earth’s hot
surface.
As millions of years passed, the constant outpouring of gases from the hot
interior — known as outgassing — provided a rich supply of water vapor, which
formed into clouds. *
Rain fell upon the earth for many thousands of years, forming the rivers, lakes,
and oceans of the world. During this time, large amounts of CO2 were dissolved in
the oceans.
It appears that oxygen (O2), the second most abundant gas in today’s
atmosphere, probably began an extremely slow increase in concentration as
energetic rays from the sun split water vapor (H2O) into hydrogen and oxygen during
a process called photodissociation.
The hydrogen, being lighter, probably rose and escaped into space, while the
oxygen remained in the atmosphere.
This slow increase in oxygen may have provided enough of this gas for
primitive plants to evolve, perhaps 2 to 3 billion years ago. Or the plants may have
evolved in an almost oxygen-free (anaerobic) environment.

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Layers of the Earth Atmosphere
The rate at which the air temperature decreases with height is called the
temperature lapse rate. The average (or standard) lapse rate in this region of the
lower atmosphere is about 6.5°C for every 1000 m or about 3.6°F for every 1000 ft
rise in elevation.
Occasionally, the air temperature may actually increase with height,
producing a condition known as a temperature inversion. So the lapse rate fluctuates,
varying from day to day and season to season.
The region of the atmosphere from the surface up to about 11 km contains all
of the weather we are familiar with on earth. Here, it is common for air molecules to
circulate through a depth of more than 10 km in just a few days. This region of
circulating air extending upward from the earth’s surface to where the air stops
becoming colder with height is called the troposphere — from the Greek tropein,
meaning to turn or change.
This region, where, on average, the air temperature remains constant with
height, is referred to as an isothermal (equal temperature) zone. The bottom of this
zone marks the top of the troposphere and the beginning of another layer, the
stratosphere.
The boundary separating the troposphere from the stratosphere is called the
tropopause. The height of the tropopause varies. It is normally found at higher
elevations over equatorial regions, and it decreases in elevation as we travel
poleward. Generally, the tropopause is higher in summer and lower in winter at all
latitudes.
The instrument that measures the vertical profile of air temperature in the
atmosphere up to an elevation sometimes exceeding 30 km [100,000 ft] is the
radiosonde.
The reason for the inversion in the stratosphere is that the gas ozone plays a
major part in heating the air at this altitude. Recall that ozone is important because it
absorbs energetic ultraviolet (UV) solar energy.
Above the stratosphere is the mesosphere (middle sphere). The boundary
near 50 km, which separates these layers, is called the stratopause.
The air at this level is extremely thin and the atmospheric pressure is quite
low, averaging about 1 mb, which means that only one-thousandth of all the
atmosphere’s molecules are above this level and 99.9 percent of the atmosphere’s
mass is located below it.
The “hot layer” above the mesosphere is the thermosphere. The boundary
that separates the lower, colder mesosphere from the warmer thermosphere is the

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mesopause. In the thermosphere, oxygen molecules (O2) absorb energetic solar
rays, warming the air. Moreover, it is in the thermosphere where charged particles
from the sun interact with air molecules to produce dazzling aurora displays.
At the top of the thermosphere, about 500 km (300 mi) above the earth’s
surface, molecules can move distances of 10 km before they collide with other
molecules. Here, many of the lighter, faster-moving molecules traveling in the right
direction actually escape the earth’s gravitational pull. The region where atoms and
molecules shoot off into space is sometimes referred to as the exosphere, which
represents the upper limit of our atmosphere.
The ionosphere is not really a layer, but rather an electrified region within the
upper atmosphere where fairly large concentrations of ions and free electrons exist.
Ions are atoms and molecules that have lost (or gained) one or more electrons.
Atoms lose electrons and become positively charged when they cannot absorb all of
the energy transferred to them by a colliding energetic particle or the sun’s energy.
The ionosphere plays a major role in AM radio communications. The lower
part (called the D region) reflects standard AM radio waves back to earth, but at the
same time it seriously weakens them through absorption.

Weather and Climate

The condition of the atmosphere at any particular time and place, which is
always changing is comprised of the elements of:
1. air temperature — the degree of hotness or coldness of the air
2. air pressure — the force of the air above an area
3. humidity — a measure of the amount of water vapor in the air
4. clouds — a visible mass of tiny water droplets and/or ice crystals that are
above the earth’s surface
5. precipitation — any form of water, either liquid or solid (rain or snow), that
falls from clouds and reaches the ground
6. visibility — the greatest distance one can see
7. wind — the horizontal movement of air

Climate
If we measure and observe these weather elements over a specified interval
of time, say, for many years, we would obtain the “average weather” or the climate of
a particular region.
Climate, therefore, represents the accumulation of daily and seasonal
weather events (the average range of weather) over a long period of time.

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Weather and Climate in our Lives
Weather, for example, often dictates the type of clothing we wear, while
climate influences the type of clothing we buy.
Climate determines when to plant crops as well as what type of crops can be
planted. Weather determines if these same crops will grow to maturity.
In order to survive the cold of winter and heat of summer, we build homes,
heat them, air condition them, insulate them — only to find that when we leave our
shelter, we are at the mercy of the weather elements.
Major cold spells accompanied by heavy snow and ice can play havoc by
snarling commuter traffic, curtailing airport services, closing schools, and downing
power lines, thereby cutting off electricity to thousands of customers
Prolonged dry spells, especially when accompanied by high temperatures,
can lead to a shortage of food and, in some places, widespread starvation. Parts of
Africa, for example, have periodically suffered through major droughts and famine.
Every summer, scorching heat waves take many lives. During the past 20
years, an annual average of more than 300 deaths in the United States were
attributed to excessive heat exposure.

C. Lesson Activity: Weather Journal

Each student will Compose a one-week journal, including daily newspaper,
weather maps and weather forecasts from the newspaper or from the Internet.
Provide a commentary for each day regarding the coincidence of actual and
predicted weather.