The atmosphere is the "air coat" of the Earth, as it is called, and life on our planet would be impossible without it. Those cosmic worlds where there is no atmosphere cannot boast of living organisms. This "coat" of air weighs 5 billion tons, and we take oxygen from it, and plants breathe carbon dioxide. Passing through it, the destructive hail of fragments from space is neutralized, and the ozone ball is our salvation from ultraviolet and other radiation. So what is atmosphere? Let's talk more about her.
Atmosphere is the gas envelope of a celestial body, star or planet. The gas that makes up the atmosphere is held together by gravity, so it's quite difficult to determine where its layer ends. After all, gas is a formless substance. Therefore, the atmosphere is considered to be the area in which the gas and the planet rotate as a whole.
Layers of the atmosphere
The atmosphere that surroundsour planet is multi-layered. It is similar to an egg in which the white surrounds the yolk. Layers, or parts of the atmosphere, have different thicknesses and are located at different distances. Let's take a look at them.
Troposphere. This is the kitchen of the weather. Its thickness is about 15 km. Here everything moves non-stop, warm and cold air currents mix, thus forming clouds, fogs, clouds.
Stratosphere. In this layer, 25–30 km thick, in its upper part, ozone accumulates. This layer of gas, whose thickness is very small, is vital for the Earth. But the ozone layer is constantly being destroyed due to the release of various unwanted chemicals into the atmosphere.
Mesosphere. This ball starts from a height of 50–55 km, which is approximately 80 km above the ground. At this point, as the altitude increases, so does the temperature.
The thermosphere, or nanosphere, is a bottomless expanse of ionized gas. In these places, the air under the action of rays from space is very rarefied, has a high electrical conductivity. It is in these high atmospheric layers that the auroras originate.
Chemical composition
Answering the question of what the atmosphere is, one cannot but take into account its composition. So, it consists of a mixture of 10 different gases, among which the largest amount of nitrogen (78%), followed by oxygen (21%). 1% remains, and here the key place is given to argon, a small fraction of carbon dioxide, neon and helium.
The gaseous atmosphere is inert chemical elements, and inthey do not react with other chemicals. And a tiny fraction of the atmosphere is made up of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, ozone (a gas related to oxygen), and water vapor.
In addition to these substances, the atmosphere also contains foreign substances: smoke particles, gaseous pollution, dust, s alt and volcanic ash.
Pollution
Along with the question of what the Earth's atmosphere is, the problem of pollution of our "air coat" is also relevant. The main sources of pollution are enterprises of the fuel and energy complex, the manufacturing industry, and modern transport. Of all harmful substances, 80% are emissions of sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons, carbon oxides, solids and nitrogen. Often people do not realize what the atmosphere is and how important it is for the life of our entire planet. We are accustomed to the fact that the air is just there, and tend to use the air shell as we please.
