Questions tagged [atmosphere]
The gaseous envelope surrounding the *Earth*, and retained by the Earth's gravitational field. If your question is about the atmosphere on another celestial body or is more astronomy related, please ask on Astronomy.SE.
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How is the equilibrium of 21% oxygen in Earth's atmosphere established?
The atmosphere is 21% oxygen. I assume that there must be an equilibrium between processes that produce oxygen (e.g. photosynthesis) and those that consume oxygen (e.g. aerobic respiration).
Moreover,...
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Centrifugal Force in the Navier Stokes Equations
The Navier-Stokes equations are a set of nonlinear differential equations that diagnose wind speed and direction. They are (approximately) expressed as $$\frac{d\vec{u}}{dt}=-\frac{1}{\rho}\nabla P+f\...
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Why does Earth have abundant oxygen in the atmosphere?
Because of photosynthesis, obviously. But then it's not actually that obvious after all, because photosynthesis is mostly balanced by respiration.
We can summarise the processes of photosynthesis ...
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Is pollution a contributing factor to freezing rain?
I have been to different places with nearly the same freezing temperatures, around -2°C, but only at some specific places I repetitively experienced freezing rain. One common factor at these places ...
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3 Billion years ago, the earth is covered with Carbon Dioxide. Where did it go?
Oxygen gas began to appear on the earth surface about 2 billion years ago by photosynthesis. Carbon Dioxide was converted into carbohydrates in the process. Where did these carbohydrates go?
If they ...
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Which particles are classified as PM2.5? How exactly is this defined?
Question
When discussing "PM2.5", is there any standardized understanding of which particles are or are not included?
Is it everything that's 2.5 microns and smaller? Or Everything between 2....
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How do current pollution levels in Los Angeles compare to the 1970s?
As I understand it there are two key kinds of air pollution: ozone and fine particles.
Are there any long-term data series that chart average ozone levels and/or fine particulates over time going ...
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Is it true that a butterfly flapping its wings can result in a tornado in a distant location?
I have heard that extreme storm events can be caused simply by a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in a distant location. Is it true that such a small disturbance in the air in one location can ...
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regression map vs correlation map
What is the exact difference between regression and correlation maps?
I know that they are often used in climate science but which is the difference in the information they provide? Here an example I ...
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What is the steepest surface that can hold snow?
I know it depends on the type of snow (dry or wet) and the rougness of the surface. I'm looking for an approximate rule of thumb answer. Assuming a reasonably smooth surface, at what angle it's likely ...
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What causes clouds to appear blue?
In a thunderstorm cloud about sunset time, I saw these clouds, including some (in the upper right) that were a unique shade of blue. I don't think I've seen clouds quite that color before. I tried ...
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How does anthropogenic heating affect global warming?
Anthropogenic-sourced greenhouse gases are commonly cited as the main source for human-caused climate change. However, something that I never see discussed is the actual heat produced by human ...
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How closely related is surface air temperature to pressure?
Obviously with a given mass and volume of air, pressure is directly proportional to temperature. However, I would expect the total mass of air within a column of atmosphere to vary over time, due to ...
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Where does the sky's blueness come from; at what altitudes is it being produced?
Rayleigh scattering (mostly) results in a blue sky (Diffuse_sky_radiation) as seen from Earth's surface. Go up in a plane to cruise altitude and the sky gets noticeably blue-er, and then darker.
The ...
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What was the density and composition of Earth's atmosphere during the Cretaceous warmest period?
There was time during the age of dinosaurs when the polar regions were ice free. The earth was obviously much warmer but a run-away greenhouse effect did not occur.
This was most likely because the ...
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What are the composition and pressure of the exosphere?
I've read that the pressure and temperature are different - how different are they, and does that affect the atmosphere's composition?
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Model impact of atmopsheric circulation changes on precipitation dD of a region
I'm looking to model the impact of broad scale atmospheric circulation changes on the hydrogen isotope ratio of precipitation for a given region. As an example, what impact does a high pressure system ...
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Why are there no CO2 snowfalls on Earth?
The CO2 phase diagram shows that at atmospheric pressure and about -78 °C temperature CO2 becomes solid:
Wikipedia confirms this:
At 1 atmosphere (near mean sea level pressure), the gas deposits ...
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Equation for solar radiation at a given latitude?
I'm trying to find equations that would help me determine the amount of solar radiation hitting a certain latitude on a certain planet given the following inputs:
the degrees of latitude of the ...
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Why did the carboniferous period have so much atmospheric oxygen?
Even if all the carbon dioxide (which makes up less than 1% of the atmosphere) in the air were sequestered by plants, would the atmosphere not remain about 21% oxygen? Why did the carboniferous period ...
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How temperature anomaly are measured
Temperature Anomaly is the measure used to show that the earth is warming. The formula for temperature anomaly involves in the subtraction of average temperature measurement over 30 years considered ...
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What causes a rainbow, its colours and its shape?
What is the cause of rainbows? Do they appear due to rainfall or any other natural phenomenon. What makes it form a semi-circle in the atmosphere and its colours?
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What is the cause of the jet streams?
Jet streams are fast-flowing currents of air in our earth's atmosphere. An enormous amount of energy is necessary to keep a jet stream going. Where does this come from and why?
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Polar Ice caps are melting? Questions on enviromental impact
The polar ice caps are melting at a significant rate partly due to the albedo effect, releasing greenhouse gas-methane into earth’s atmosphere. At the same time we are logging our forests for ...
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Is volume of air increasing as CO2 levels increase?
CO2 levels are increasing, they have crossed 400 ppm, which means that of every million gas molecules in the air, 400 are of CO2.
It has been increasing. Does that mean the total volume of air in the ...
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At what rate does Earth's atmosphere shed heat into space? [closed]
If we had a heat bank account (the atmosphere)
+ heat cash supply (ice)
+ heat debt (the oceans)
could governments find a way to balance our heat economy that doesn't kill ...
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The atmosphere and the dispersion of greenhouse gases
I have been researching everywhere. At what level of the atmosphere do carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases occur? I can't get a straight answer and am frustrated...
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Would the enthalpy of fusion for melting ice fields be a causative factor for colder winter weather?
Would the enthalpy of fusion for melting ice fields be a causative factor for colder winter weather?
As an example, NASA estimated the annual loss of the Greenland ice field 2002-2013 as more than ...
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The Tambora eruption caused the “Year without a summer”. How much would such an eruption today affect the output of solar pv on a global scale?
Are there any estimates for the reduction of global solar insolation at the Earth's surface that a Tambora scale eruption would bring?
If our electrical power generation became heavily reliant on ...
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Understanding a diagram of Earth's radiation balance
Trying to understand this image. Can someone tell me if I have the right reasoning here:
Sun has 100% SW shooting to earth
30% of that 100% is reflected by clouds
70% remains
Of that 70%, 45% of that ...
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1answer
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What is the difference between radiation balance and the global energy balance?
Looking at two diagrams below, they seem to depict the same system. How are they different? Why one is a radiation balance model and the other a global energy balance model?
RADIATION BALANCE MODEL:
...
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Why do anticyclones bring clear skies in summertime?
It's obvious that in summer anticyclones bring hot weather. But why clear skies?
Heat evaporates the moisture and should lead to the cloud formation, shouldn't it?
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Weight vs. Mass of Clouds
I came across a statement online that said that an average cloud has a weight of 1 million pounds. My main question is, does a cloud actually have weight on Earth or was the term "weight" a colloquial ...
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How do I explain why the Tibetan plateau is colder than lowlands at similar latitudes?
A common layman explanation for why does it get colder to higher elevations (considering only the troposphere here) qualitatively boils down to The Sun heats the Earth's surface and the Earth's ...
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Where is the calmest place on Earth?
I have done some research online, and I've found out that Antarctica has the calmest winds (lowest maximum wind speed) recorded on Earth. However, it is uninhabitable for human life. Other very calm ...
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Is there a 'standard size' for volcanic eruptions in terms of gas output?
We saw recently the Iceland volcano Eyjafjallajökull produced significant gaseous output that impacted the flight paths of several planes.
When we look at volcanic gas components, we see they ...
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Does airglow intensity systematically change during the night?
Airglow is caused, among other factors, by recombination of atoms ionized during the day. This makes me think that during the night concentration of these ions should reduce, lowering intensity of ...
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How big does a lake have to be to have its own Sea Breeze?
How big does a body of water need to have a sea breeze? Is there a chart on sea breezes wind speed that include lakes?
Could a circular lake create enough sea breeze to create a wind vortex in the ...
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1answer
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How to strong winds cause baroclinic intensification in the upper ocean?
Below is an excerpt from The Biology of the Indian Ocean, Bernt Zeitzschel, Sebastian A. Gerlach
The more vigorous atmospheric and oceanic circulation during the SW
monsoon causes not only the ...
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Electricity in clouds and induced magnetism
This is well known to everyone that clouds carry electric charges and cumulonimbus clouds contain huge amount of electricity. It is also known from Maxwell's equations that moving particles induce ...
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Do HAARP-like programs have effects on climate? [closed]
Military powers like USA, Rusia and China have programs to heat through electromagnetic waves the Ionosphere. HAARP supposedly is a research program, but run by part of the military of US (Air Force ...
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Do solar storms affect Earth's weather?
Solar storms have a direct effect on Earth, creating charged particles. What are the direct and indirect effects of large solar storms on Earth's atmosphere? Do solar storms affect Earth's weather?
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Are there any consequences to carbon capture and storage that also sequesters oxygen?
A big argument for carbon capture and storage is true reversal; while switching to renewable energy and eliminating CO2 emissions is a must, it will not reverse the massive movement of carbon from ...
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Is the color of the sky the same everywhere on earth?
Is the color of the sky at noon (local time) in, say, NY, Buenos Aires, London, Nairobi, Sydney, New Delhi and Tokyo the same? I choose the specific time of noon to exclude the twilight colors of the ...
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How can I convert a CERA-20C total precipitation dataset of "monthly means of daily means' (edmo) to mm/month?
I downloaded an edmo dataset of 1 ensemble of the cera-20c model. I want to convert these data, which are in [m], to mm/month. Further specifications: 0.125/0.125 grid, -29/30/-30/31 area. Example of ...
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How much energy is required to hold the earth’s atmosphere up against the forces of gravity?
My understanding is that the earth’s atmosphere was originally formed by the molten earth itself, and the sun was 70% weaker that present. Then as the earth cooled the energy required to keep the ...
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Take all the CO2 in the atmosphere and put it into a layer on the surface of earth, how thick would the layer be?
I teach a Middle School (year 8) Geometry course and have a student attempting to answer this question. My assumptions:
earth's radius is $3959 \text{ mi}$
earth is a sphere
There is approximately $3 ...
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What would a planet's sky look like with different chemical compositions, such as low nitrogen, high methane etc?
What are the processes, chemicals and particles involved in creating colour in a planet's sky? Could you give some examples of sky colour processes different from what happens on Earth?
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The differences on the atmospheric transportation for various trace metal in atmosphere
I have known that the atmospheric lifetimes of chemical species were highly dependent on their physicochemical properties. For example, $SO_2$ might exist for 5-8 days, while $NO_2$ could only exist ...
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How to predict when contrails are likely to form over a specific location using public data?
I saw the image below used as a click-attractor to an unrelated story about tourism, but found a larger version here.
Contrails, or water condensation trails happen when planes pass through the ...
