5 Fascinating Layers of the Atmosphere: Unlocking Earth’s Protective Shield

Imagine a world with no air or only a constant storm of radiation. How far do you think it is habitable? Do the 5 layers of the atmosphere on Earth gives us only air to breathe? What are your opinions on this?

Consider a latest news, Survival on Mars is been a hot topic from past few years. Every then and now we get some news about water availability and a rare chance of having some microorganisms over there and this conclusion derives that life can exist there. But one important question which came in everyone’s mind is about the atmosphere of mars.

After all, it’s a matter of human existence. Some intrigued questions are like is there an atmosphere on mars? Will we get all of those gases which are necessary for human existence on another planet? Will atmosphere of mars protect us from harmful UV rays?

We are aware about Origin of the Earth and how Atmosphere of the Earth evolved in due time. In this article we will get to know the importance of atmosphere and its components too.

Overview of the Atmosphere: –

In simple terms, we can understand atmosphere as a thick and huge blanket of air around our earth which has mixture of gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, argon and also various solid and liquid particles, is known as Atmosphere.

We will delve in deep about composition of atmosphere now.

COMPOSITION OF ATMOSPHERE: –

Permanent Gases	Variable Gases
N2 – 78.08%	H2O (water vapour)
O2- 20.95%	CO2 (carbon dioxide – a potent GHG)
Ar – 0.98%	CH4 (methane)
Ne – 0.0018%	N2O (nitrous oxide)
He – 0.0005%	O3 (ozone)
H2 – 0.0006%	CFCs (chloro-flouro carbon)
Xe – 0.000009%	Other Particles (like dust,soot)

IMPORTANCE OF ATMOSPHERE: –

Atmosphere of earth is one of the main reasons behind our existence. And this clearly shows its importance. Be it for human existence, for plants or for all the weather and climate changes, no doubt atmosphere is important. Our thick blanket of air (atmosphere) is categorized in five different layers and all those five layers of the atmosphere is somehow essential for us.

5 LAYERS OF ATMOSPHERE AND THEIR IMPORTANCE:

TROPOSPHERE: –

1. Troposphere is the first and the bottommost layer of the atmosphere.
2. It extends from 12 to 13 km in width.
3. It contains almost 75% of gaseous mass, contributing in the existence of life.
4. 90% of water vapour exists in troposphere.
5. The density of this layer is high.
6. Climatic phenomenon like formation of clouds, rainfall, all happens in troposphere.
7. With increase in height, temperature in troposphere decreases due to terrestrial radiation and lapse rate.

STRATOSPHERE: –

1. It’s the second layer among the five layers of the atmosphere.
2. Between stratosphere and troposphere lies the tropopause, which is 2-4 km in width. It’s an isothermal layer as with increase in height, temperature remains constant.
3. Stratosphere extends up to 50 km.
4. This layer of atmosphere is suitable for airplanes as there is no cloud and visibility issue here, which we have in troposphere.
5. With increase in height in this layer, temperature also increases.
6. We found here the most important ozone layer in the atmosphere, which is playing a vital role in protecting us from harmful UV rays.
7. Layers of Ozone is present in between 15-35km.
8. The unit which is used to measure ozone is Dobson Unit.

MESOSPHERE: –

1. It’s the third layer of our atmosphere.
2. Between stratosphere and mesosphere, we get stratopause which is again isothermal in nature.
3. In mesosphere, with increase in height, temperature decreases, and the most probable reason behind this is that there is nothing here to absorb sunlight which would keep it warm.
4. It extends up to a height of 80 km.
5. Also, this is assumed to be the coolest layer of atmosphere.
6. This layer is well known for burning of meteoroids, or which we called meteor shower.

THERMOSPHERE: –

1. Thermosphere is the fourth layer of the atmosphere, which extends up to 400 km.
2. Between mesosphere and thermosphere, we have mesopause which is again isothermal.
3. This layer of atmosphere is also known as IONOSPHERE, as particles of air start converting in ions, and this process is known as Ionisation.
4. In thermosphere, with increase in height, temperature also increases and, the reason behind this is upper air inversion.
5. Thermosphere is also known for being responsible for formation of auroras or what we say northern lights.

EXOSPHERE: –

1. This is the fifth and last layer of the atmosphere.
2. This layer has very thin air of helium and hydrogen, which freely floats here.
3. After this layer space begins.

HUMAN IMPACT ON THE ATMOSPHERE: –

POLLUTION:

Since we know that human being are solely responsible for creating pollution and intrestingly by doing so we are digging our own grave. This is so because in long run this will have an adverse impact on our life by creating various health issues. Our life has changed drastically and we have developed ourselves and has increased our living standards by using different cars, Acs, Fridge, buying properties and what not.

But let me show you the other side of the coin, smoke which is released in Tonnes form our vehicle, have you ever thought where does it go? Nowadays, people are frequently buying properties, but do we even realize that how many trees have been cut down to make a property? These trees were playing various role in protecting our life and atmosphere. As trees and plant uses CO2, which is a greenhouse gas, to make their food. What if the amount of CO2 increases in atmosphere? The temperature of earth will gradually increase making it difficult for us to survive.

OZONE LAYER:

Depletion of ozone layer is a serious concern these days. Chloro-Floro-Carbon (CFCs) which is being released from fridge, ACs is a potent gas which is ultimately destroying our ozone layer in atmosphere. If it kept on depleting our ozone layer, then diseases like skin cancer and other skin and eye related diseases will get common.

CLIMATE CHANGE:

We are now on that stage when we should make ourselves prepare to survive these climate changes. There is a havoc like situation everywhere around the world. Be it landslide in Wayanad on Karnataka (India), flash flood in Sierra Nevada or forest fire in Albania or Canada.

CONCLUSION:

In this article we got to know about 5 layers of the atmosphere and characteristics of atmosphere, that is, how temperature decreases with increase in height and what are the probable reason behind this. And also, the reason behind decreasing density with increase in height.

We need to understand the significance of atmosphere. If there would be no atmosphere, the days on earth would have been extremely hot and nights extremely cold. Also, it has taken millions of years for the formation of atmosphere. So, we have to be careful towards our activities as our lives is in our hand.

Additional Resources:-

Link:

What Is… Earth’s Atmosphere? – NASA

For a 3D view, refer this- NASA SVS | Earth’s Atmosphere Layers: Global View

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