What is the atmosphere and what is it for?

The atmosphere is the "air coat" of the Earth, so it is called, and life on our planet without it would be impossible. Those cosmic worlds, where there is no atmosphere, can not boast of living organisms. This "coat" of air weighs 5 billion tons, and from it we take oxygen, and plants breathe carbon dioxide. Passing through it, the destructive hail of fragments from outer space is neutralized, and the ozone ball is our salvation from ultraviolet and other radiations. So what is the atmosphere? Let's talk about it in more detail.

The atmosphere is the gas shell of a celestial body, a star or a planet. The atmosphere that makes up the atmosphere is held by gravity, so it is difficult to determine where its layer ends. After all, gas is a formless substance. Therefore, the atmosphere in which the gas and the planet rotate as a single whole is considered to be the atmosphere.

Layers of the atmosphere

The atmosphere that surrounds our planet is multilayered. It is like an egg in which the 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. Here everything moves non-stop, warm and cold streams of air are mixed, thus forming clouds, fogs, clouds.

Stratosphere. In this layer, 25-30 km thick, in the upper part of it, ozone accumulates. This layer of gas, whose thickness is very small, is vitally important for the Earth. But the ozone layer is constantly destroyed due to the release of various undesirable chemicals into the atmosphere.

Mesosphere. This ball begins at an altitude of 50-55 km, which is about 80 km above the earth. At this point, as the altitude increases, so does the temperature.

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 polar auroras arise.

Chemical composition

Answering the question about what the atmosphere is, one can not ignore its composition. So, it consists of a mixture of 10 different gases, among which the greatest amount of nitrogen (78%), followed by oxygen (21%). Remains 1%, and here the key place is allocated to argon, a small share of carbon dioxide, neon and helium. The gas atmosphere is inert chemical elements, and they do not enter into reactions with other chemicals. And a very tiny fraction of the atmosphere is accounted for by sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, ozone (gas related to oxygen), and water vapor.

In addition to these substances, there are also foreign substances in the atomosphere: smoke particles, gaseous impurities, dust, salt and volcanic ash.

Pollution

Along with the question of what the atmosphere of the Earth 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 industry, modern transport. Of all harmful substances, 80% is occupied by emissions of sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons, carbon oxides, solids and nitrogen. Often people do not realize what an atmosphere is and how important it is for the life of our entire planet. We are used to the fact that the air is just there, and are inclined to use the air envelope as it pleases.