The atmosphere is an “air coat” of the Earth, as it is called, and life on our planet would not be possible without it. Those cosmic worlds where there is no atmosphere cannot boast of living organisms. This "fur coat" from the air weighs 5 billion tons, and we take oxygen from it, and the 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 the atmosphere? Let's talk about it in more detail.
The atmosphere is the gas shell of a celestial body, star or planet. The constituent gas is held in 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 region in which the gas and the planet rotate as a whole.
Atmospheric layers
The atmosphere that surrounds our planet is multi-layered. It is like an egg in which protein surrounds the yolk. The layers, or parts of the atmosphere, have different thicknesses, and are at different distances. Let's get acquainted with them.
Troposphere. This is a “weather kitchen”. Its thickness is about 15 km. Everything moves non-stop here, warm and cold air flows 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 undesirable chemicals into the atmosphere.
Mesosphere. This ball starts at an altitude of 50–55 km, which is approximately 80 km above the ground. At this point, with increasing elevation, the temperature rises.
The thermosphere, or nanosphere, is the bottomless expanse of ionized gas. In these places, the air under the action of rays from space is very rarefied, has a large electrical conductivity. It is in these high atmospheric layers that the auroras arise.
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%). Only 1% remains, and here the key place is given to argon, a small fraction of carbon dioxide, neon and helium.
The gas atmosphere is an inert chemical element, and they do not enter into reactions with other chemicals. And a very tiny fraction of the atmosphere is sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, ozone (a gas related to oxygen), as well as water vapor.
In addition to these substances, the atomosphere also contains foreign substances: smoke particles, gaseous pollution, dust, salt 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 the enterprises of the fuel and energy complex, manufacturing, modern transport. Of all the 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 used to the fact that there is just air, and we tend to use the air shell as you please.
