16
votes
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How did CO₂ originate on Earth before there was life?
The answer is Volcanos. There might be other inorganic processes capable to produce $\text{CO}_2$, but on Earth, the main inorganic source of $\text{CO}_2$ are volcanoes.
In some period of Earth's ...
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14
votes
Why is it colder in the mountains than at sea level?
The traditional answer basically comes down to the physics concept of adiabatic cooling, a description of which is:
There is less pressure as you go up in the atmosphere (basically due to less air ...
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12
votes
Accepted
Can I use diamonds as fossil fuel?
Diamonds are expensive. Really expensive. Even "cheap" synthetic diamonds are orders of magnitude more expensive than conventional fossil fuel. By using them as fuel, you will increase ...
- 23.3k
11
votes
Why have "ozone-depleting substances" led to a third of all global warming and half of arctic sea ice loss?
The Global warming potential (GWP) describes how much global warming a particular gas may induce in a particular time period. It is often expressed in terms of CO₂-equivalent. The best known ...
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11
votes
Why are atmospheric BrO and ClO important to measure by satellite?
BrO and ClO significantly deplete ozone from the atmosphere.
Researchers at Harvard University state:
It is a remarkable fact that perhaps the most important observation coupling climate forcing ...
- 25.1k
9
votes
Accepted
ppmV versus μmol/mol for atmospheric CO2 - how to convert?
According to the US Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center :
Though in their data table they use the term "ppmv", they explain:
The CO2 mixing ratios are reported as micromoles per mole ...
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8
votes
Accepted
What "g" would be needed to keep helium on Earth?
Atmospheric escape is the loss of planetary atmospheric gases to outer space. You'd never be able to contain ALL of any gas forever by gravity. Ultimately you end up in the rarefied atmosphere where ...
- 511
8
votes
Why is the Earth's shadow blue?
To my eyes, the belt of Venus looks purple, which didn't makes sense to me, as the very short wavelength of purple light should have been scattered long before arriving back there. Then all made sense ...
- 24.7k
8
votes
Accepted
Convert NO2 concentration in Sentinel-5P data from mol/m2 to μg/m3 on the ground level
...measured in mol/m² within the total or tropospheric column. Is it possible to deduce concentrations for a specific slice of the troposphere?
Not really, since you have a crucial bit of information ...
- 11.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Why is the Earth's shadow blue?
How can the air in the Earth's shadow scatter blue light if it doesn't get any direct illumination, and any indirect illumination getting back there should be VERY depleted in blue (i.e. mostly red ...
- 471
7
votes
Does natural plant decomposition release more greenhouse gases than burning
Another way of looking at the question:
I take 2 standard wheelbarrows of bits of plants from my garden. One wheelbarrow is used to fill the compost bin. The other goes to the bonfire.
How much ash ...
- 564
7
votes
Accepted
How to calculate the solar radiation at any place, any time
Look at the pysolar docs (http://pysolar.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) under "Estimate of clear sky radiation". The algorithm does not return zeros at night, but instead just plugs those ...
- 1,381
7
votes
Have the oceans dissolved water vapour?
The answer is no, yes and then, perhaps, no.
No: water vapour is not "dissolved" in the oceans, rather it becomes part of the oceans through a phase change from vapour to liquid (possibly via an ...
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7
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How to convert mol/m^2 to total mass ( e.g gram, kg etc )?
$\rm \frac{mol}{m^2}$ shows the amount of $\rm{NO_2}$ in the atmosphere over a square meter of surface area - in mols.
The molar mass of the $\rm{NO_2}$ is $14+2\cdot 16=46$. It means, the mass of 1 ...
- 670
7
votes
Accepted
Does evaporated hand sanitizer pollute the environment?
Assuming you are talking about ethanol: it is a common chemical substance, generated naturally from e.g. rotting fruits. So any pollution from hand sanitizers should be negligible.
What happens to the ...
- 230
6
votes
How to understand the bizarre high level for both PM2.5 and Ozone
I think it is important to keep in mind the mechanisms that form PM$_{2.5}$ are different than the mechanisms that form O$_3$.
From the data your provided you can draw some simple conclusions:
...
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6
votes
Accepted
What is brown carbon?
Carbonaceous aerosols are formed by a mixture of substances with different chemical, physical, and optical properties.
Certain organic substances are mostly transparent to sunlight and therefore do ...
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6
votes
Accepted
Why isn't $\ce{H2O}$ evenly distributed in Earth's atmosphere?
I frequently read CO2 has a spatially constant concentration sadly rising and at 415ppm at present. That concentration do not vary a lot spatially I think. You will find ~415ppm at Argentina or at ...
- 24.7k
6
votes
Accepted
If methane decays to $\small\sf{CO_2}$ in the atmosphere, shouldn't there be much more $\small\sf{CO_2}$?
So what am I missing in this analysis?
The linked data says 2017 CH4 was about 1850 ppb, not 1850 ppm. Dividing parts per billion (ppb) by 1000 results in parts per million (ppm). In other words, ...
- 24.7k
5
votes
How can scientists measure chemical composition on other planets?
Scientists can measure the chemical composition of the atmosphere of other planets using spectroscopy. Each molecule in the atmosphere absorbs and re-radiates at specific frequencies of light that ...
- 14k
5
votes
How is the equilibrium of 21% oxygen in Earth's atmosphere established?
Atmospheric oxygen is not in an equilibrium of 21%, it just changes very slowly. For instance, oxygen has decreased by 0.7% over the past 800 thousand years, likely due to increased erosion (which ...
- 14k
5
votes
Accepted
Persistence time of ozone
Let's first consider the scenario in the absence of free radicals that can act as catalysts of $O_3$ destruction.
In such scenario, added to the absence of UV radiation, the photolysis of ozone ($O_3 +...
- 17.7k
5
votes
Why have "ozone-depleting substances" led to a third of all global warming and half of arctic sea ice loss?
Do these "ozone-depleting substances" also have infrared-absorbing greenhouse impact unrelated to their ozone-depleting chemistry, or is the story more complex?
Yes, the paper (I have access) ...
- 704
5
votes
Accepted
Have the oceans dissolved water vapour?
TL;DR: Henry's law describes an ideal linear relationship between the equilibrium amount of a low-concentration solute in a solution and the partial pressure of the solute in the gas phase above the ...
- 4,417
5
votes
Why are atmospheric BrO and ClO important to measure by satellite?
pretext: Seeing this question on the list of network questions caught my interest to the site.
I agree with the arguments put forward in the answer by Fred, gravitating on the radical character of ...
- 596
5
votes
Are atmospheric halogen oxides "supposed to be" in the atmosphere? Where do they come from?
Classifying the presence of halogen oxides in the atmosphere as either natural, pollution or mixed bag, would result in mixed bag.
Natural sources of halogen oxides include the ocean and volcanoes. ...
- 25.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Why is there a window in the absorption spectrum of Earth's atmosphere at a wavelength of 4 μm?
There is simply no strong enough absorption of any of the greenhouse gases at this wavelength. However this does not mean that there is none.
Remember that what you are seeing here is the transmission ...
- 3,271
4
votes
Accepted
Does hydroxyl radical chemistry in air quality models create numerical stability problems?
The hydroxyl radical chemistry is not modeled explicitly in air quality models, so numerical stability is not an issue. Instead, OH is held in pseudo-steady-state. For instance, see CMAQ's ...
- 14k
4
votes
How to understand the bizarre high level for both PM2.5 and Ozone
Ozone is most closely correlated to temperature. Yes you need NOx and VOCs to create ozone, but you also need enough photolysis driven by sunlight in order for ozone to form. The day analyzed in the ...
- 14k
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