The atmosphere, the earth and the sunScience project

WIND

Definition: Wind is air in motion usually moving horizontally in relation to the earth’s surface. It´s caused because some parts are heated unevenly or changes in the temperature. This uneven heat is produced because the earth absorbs radiation unevenly. The equator is hotter. Also because of the rotation of the earth some parts get more direct sun than others; this is due because of the tilt axis of our planet. So we can say that the sun is a key factor to produce and for the wind itself. Wind is measured by direction, character, shifts and speed. The surfaces winds are measured with the tools called wind vanes and anemometers. And the upper level is detected by pilot balloons, raw in or aircraft reports. These were some of the instruments used to detect wind.

The movement of the wind is doing because of the temperature. As it

said in the paragraph above wind is caused because of the uneven temperature. Because hot air weights less it raises and cold air replaces it. This creates circular patterns or what we know as wind. You can think of wind as a way to transport hot air from low pressure areas to high ones. The wind moves from the hot equator 200 miles until it begins to get colder and sinks. So it falls back to the low surface of the earth right to the cold poles.

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Wind patterns are formed because the equator that receives direct sun because of the rotation of the earth leaves low pressure areas and move Thirty degrees north and southern to the equator. Warm air from equator cools and sinks. Most cool air moves to the equator back. The rest of the air moves around the poles.

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Air masses are the large body of air that is drawn by wind patterns. They move across the earth and are a thousand of feet thick. The location determines its characteristics. For example, the air over high latitude becomes cold and dry. Six of these large convection currents cover earth from pole to pole.

ATMOSPHERE LAYERS

DEFINITION AND INTRODUCTION

The atmosphere is described as a thin protective blanket made up of gases that surrounds the earth and it extends from the surface out thousands of kilometers. It helps us in so many ways but still is very delicate. It’s becoming thinner, with disturbance but always in place by earth´s gravity. It transports water and heat, filters out deadly radiation ultraviolet and meteorites. The atmosphere is made up of three main layers. These are

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the upper atmosphere, middle atmosphere and lower atmosphere. Inside this

layers there are many more.

The upper atmosphere is made up of the exosphere and thermosphere. The exosphere is the farthest layer. It is from 640 to 64,000 above the earth’s surface. Here the air dwindles to nothing. In the thermosphere the temperature rises. It is from 84 to 640 km above the earth’s surface. Here the air is really thin. Due to the radiation it reaches even to 230. Inside the thermosphere there is two other layers called ionosphere and magnetosphere. In the ionosphere the electrical charged particles that can infer the radios transition. The magnetosphere has charged particles that are affected by the earth’s magnetic field. In here the northern and southern lights are create.

In the middle atmosphere there are two layers called the Mesosphere and the Stratosphere. In the mesosphere the shooting stars blaze. This layer is 50 to 80km above the surface of the earth. The space debris begins to burn as it enters this layer. The temperature drops to -90 c at the top of the layer. In the Stratosphere the protective ozone floats. It´s 16 to 50 km above the earth’s surface. The concentration of ozone is about 22km up and 20% of the molecules of the atmosphere are in the stratosphere. It gets warmer as you go away from earth.

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In the lower atmosphere there is one layer. In the Troposphere, where the weather forms, is 16km up from earth in the equator. It’s up to 16 km above the earth’s surface. The storms take place here and it contains 75% of the atmosphere. It extends 8 km up from earth at the north and south poles. And near the top is as cold as -75 C.

ATMOSPHERE

When it moves, it moves the temperature too. The warm air from the equator moves to the poles and cold air from poles to the equator. This circulation is a little disrupted by the earth’s rotation. The atmosphere contains the air we breathe. The clouds of moisture that become our water are found in here. It protects us and life on earth from meteors, sun radiation and warms by conserving the heat the sun gives us.

WHAT IS THE ATMOSPHERE MADE OF

Air contains a mixture of gases. The gases are nitrogen, oxygen and argon, carbon dioxide and other gases in small portions. The 78% of it is nitrogen, the 21% oxygen and the 1% left argon, carbon dioxide and other gases in small portions. But water vapor is the 45% of the total volume. Atmosphere total mass is 50,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons. But the 80% of that mass is 12 kilometers from the surface of the earth. An interesting fact is that in the deserts the water vapor is zero! The upper limit for water vapor is 4% and it is only applied on tropical areas.

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ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE

The atmospheric pressure is the amount of force or pressure made by the atmosphere on objects located within it. The more there is the stronger that force will be and the harder the atmosphere would push against animals, plants, rocks and the earth´s surface. High pressure is when it’s pressing down by force and when it’s less force there is low pressure

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HOW DOES THE ATMOSPHERE STAY WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF GASES?

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With each breath you take you are breathing 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon with other small gases. The small gases are: methane, helium, krypton, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, neon and ozone, which is a form of oxygen. Nitrogen is added when plants and animals dye or when they are burned. Also it is added when volcanoes erupt, and the decay of non organic materials. While nitrogen is added constantly it is also being removed by living organisms. This process gives a perfect balance so the total amount remains constant. Oxygen is added by plants as they make photosynthesis and is removed by animals, us and other types of life. It is very important for animals because they use it as critical ingredients for the processes of life.

THE SUN

DEFINITION AND …

The sun being the closest star to earth and the center of the solar system is a spinning ball made up of hot gas that produces energy. It keeps planet warm enough for us to exist. It is 4.5 billion years old. Because of its position we have the perfect climate for life. Without it we wouldn’t have water to drink because it would be frozen. For example Mars is too cold and Venus too hot. Without the sun there would be not weather. The center of the sun is where the energy is made, it´s called core. In the core the energy is produced by the nuclear fusion reactions. The energy travels outwards from the core and it takes millions of years to the energy get to the surface of the sun. Each second the sun releases 100 billion tons of TNT in the form of exploitation. Earth receives only one billionth of the energy of the sun. Scientist still don’t know why there are changes on the suns energy, how energy travels from the surface to the area above the surface passing from 30,000° to over 1,000,000°.

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SOLAR STORMS

Sometimes the sun has sunspots; coral mass ejections and solar flares. These are solar storms that can produce radiation and magnetic fields into the space. These radiations can come to our planet and influence us. They can be as few minutes long or as hours or days long. Radiation storms can be dangerous for astronauts and damage our satellites. They can transmit electrical power. Solar storms can destroy but also create the aurora lights in the upper atmosphere. An interesting fact about the sun is that if the sun was a hollow ball there you could put one million earths inside!

PHENOMENON OF THE ENERGY IN THE SUN

When the sun ejects a huge amount of magnetized particles, if they reach the outer space it can affect, satellites and communication signals. This particles causes the aurora borealis, and the aurora australis, this is the first phenomenon. Another one is called Albedo which is the suns energy that is reflected back by a surface. The type of surface is the important factor to

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determent the warming or the cooling for our planet. Light colored surfaces, like ice have high albedo. Dark surfaces have low albedo. If the ice melts then albedo would be higher in the cities. Because of pavement and buildings absorbs sunlight more than the countryside. The countryside is cooler because the evaporation of water from bodies of water. And that are given off by the forest and fields plants. Cities have less plants and bodies of water and that’s why they don’t get cooler that much.

And at last the rays of the sun. We already studied about the electromagnetic spectrum and all the rays that are within it. We studied what happens when they get here and how do they affect us but what we didn’t know is what happens in their trajectory. Well the UV rays, visible light and infrared pass through our protective blanket called atmosphere. Here most of the UV radiation is blocked by the thermosphere, mesosphere and stratosphere. Visible light does reaches the ground, is one of the few that passes through the atmosphere. And the infrared rays are absorbed by carbon dioxide and water vapor.

ENERGY BALANCE

Earth gets its energy from the sun and releases in the space. If the energy is lost more than being recovered the planet would get cooler. If it loss less energy than what is receive it would get warmer. Some clouds act like an umbrella and give shadow top the planet and reflect the suns energy. Sometimes this makes the planet cooler. Others act like a jacket and prevent the energy from escaping, making the earth warmer. This could change

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because of global warning affecting the type, the thickness and how much ice or liquid the cloud contains

WATER CYCLE

Water is always moving and changing. The sun rays cause water to evaporate from lakes and oceans and into the atmosphere. Plants and animals release evaporate ware when they breathe. When the atmosphere cools it produces the water vapor to condense and make clouds that might produce snow or rain. In this forms as water, ice and vapor water has been naturally recycled over 3.5 billion years. Water cycle definition is vertical and horizontal transport of water and all its states through earth between the atmosphere and seas.

OCEAN MOTION

The water of the ocean moves because of differences in temperatures and saltines. Warm water at the surface near the equator moves to the poles. Equator region more heater while it travels till getting to the poles where it colds up and sinks and flows back to the equator. The upper layers of water are forced to move to the poles. Cold and salty water moves to the deep in the sea. Oceans can hold a lot of energy and heat, more than the atmosphere. The sun heats the water causing hot cold circulation. Also the sun evaporates water and the sun creates wind which helps making currents. The currents are by transporting hot water to areas of cold water or from high pressure to areas of low pressure. Result of two process: Temperature

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and wind. The effect of temperature is when there is a variation in the water. There are some areas that are cooler or hotter than others. This is by the sun, because the sun heats our planet and makes the temperature of the seas. Convection occurs when the water becomes less dense or hotter and rises up and the cold water sinks making a circular movement to heat up water. The wind is caused by the sun because it makes the air flow from high pressures to low pressures. Wind pushes water and causes the ocean currents to have their movement, it gives direction. Wind direction is affected by the rotation of the earth. Currents in northern hemisphere move clockwise, while in the southern hemisphere they move the opposite of clock wise.

SEASONS

Seasons occur because some parts of the earth receive more sun than others. The earth spins in a tilt axis this produces day and night. The axis is tilted 23.5, this makes some parts get more sun then others that place is hotter and the ones that don’t receive it are cold. The hotter parts have summer and the ones who don’t get that much of sun are cold and have winter. It rotates around the sun and this takes 365 and ¼ days. The certain change in the weather and seasons that we are having that doesn’t have anything to do with the axis is due to global warning.

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PLANT GROWTH

Plants need any kind of light, which is energy, to carry on the work of life. Energy carried by light is used to make sugar. Sugar is used to make other necessary materials for the plant. This process that plants use is called photosynthesis. In order for plants to make more and better photosynthesis they change their patterns of growth in order to absorb more light. Some plants bend to follow the sun. Non tropical plants detect the seasons by the amount of light. Plants make their own schedule for their process of life. They combine the sun with carbon dioxide and water to make sugars that help as combustion to carry the process of photosynthesis.

Strong light makes the plant that is absorbing it rise its temperature. Cooling mechanism with enough water from their roots evaporate from their leaves. The amount of sunlight necessary for a plant depends on the type of plant. With this you may see if it´s dangerous for the plant. The colors red, yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo and violet colors are necessary for the plant to grow healthy. Blue ban makes the leaves grow and the red and blue make flowering. But green and yellow don’t make plants grow.

There are three groups that split depending on the need of sun. The sort, long and neutral day plants. The short day need less than 12 hours a day of sun to flower, poinsettia and chrysanthemums. Long day need more than 12 hours include vegetables. And finally the day neutral plants no

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matter the amount of sunlight they receive. The amount of sunlight varies because of the season, and as we know seasons are caused because of the tilt axis and the sun. Without the sun plants would die and we won’t have food as animals would also die and then we won’t have meet and we would also die because of starvation.

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