3 10 Atmosphere Aristotle founder of the science of exploring and thinking about the climate combined all materials into four components fire air water earth now we use energy gas liquid solid Aristotle s division of four groups was a good start to explaining the earth composite of atmosphere is actually predominately nitrogen then oxygen a little Co2 and Ar theory is that we used to have a lot more gases but gravity wasn t strong enough to keep them gon in our atmosphere without our atmosphere we wouldn t have water or be able to burn things atmosphere is more important than we think of it being Human Influence on Atmosphere amount of CO2 in atmosphere is increasing this makes us question are humans responsible for the increase or is it a natural occurrence life strongly influences the composite of the atmosphere years ago earth developed plants which provide oxygen into the atmosphere life takes up certain components and releases other ones results in change of atmosphere composition of atmosphere is different in different areas air in the forest is easier to breath and has more oxygen than city one main thing that influences the atmosphere is water and evaporation red sunsets rises are red b c of Aerosols Aerosols only red light is able to pass through aerosols so when it is clear and when the sun hits them right the sky appears red in dust dry air aerosols are more visible sunsets aren t as great when its foggy out Ozone O3 if you look at planets closer to sun like Mercury almost everything is burnt we don t burn up because we have the protective layer of ozone around our earth oxygen ultraviolet atomic oxygen atomic oxygen oxygen molecule ozone our ozone cycle is constantly recycling so we have a constant level of ozone we need other elements can have an effect on ozone such as CO2 a couple of years ago we had an issue with an excess amount of chlorine which caused a deple this caused an ozone hole we now need stronger sunscreen b c ozone layer is weaker which causes intensity of sun to in tion of ozone crease global community has decided something needs to be done started to ban chlorides in overall system conclusion there are natural disasters associated with the atmosphere we need to know what the structure of atmosphere is pressure decreases with altitude 50 of air lies below about 3 5 miles high altitude humans need more than 50 air if we get higher than that we need extra oxygen people who climb mount everest w o extra air often get brain damage b c they go over 3 5 mile mark atmosphere layers thermosphere mesosphere stratosphere troposphere