Chapter 15: The Atmosphere

Section 1:The Air Around You

Objectives:

  1. State how the atmosphere is important to living things
  2. Identify the gasses that are present in the atmosphere

Concept Review:

  1. Why is the atmosphere so important to life on earth? ______
  2. Living things need three things in order to stay alive that the atmosphere gives, what are they? ______
  3. What four main gasses (and their percentages) make up 99.9% of the atmosphere? ______
  4. Why is Nitrogen important to life on earth? ______
  5. Why is Oxygen important to life on earth? ______
  6. Why is Carbon Dioxide important to life on earth? ______
  7. Why is water vapor so important to life on earth? ______
  8. What are “particles”? How do they get in our atmosphere? ______

Key Terms:

1.weather 2.atmosphere 3.ozone 4.water vapor

Key Ideas:

  1. The earth’s atmosphere makes conditions suitable for all life on earth
  2. Earth’s atmosphere is made up of the molecules nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor, as well as other gasses, liquids and solids called particles.

Section 3: Air Pressure

Objectives:

  1. Identify some of the properties of air
  2. Name instruments that are used to measure air pressure
  3. Explain how increasing altitude affects air pressure and density.

Concept Review:

  1. What is density? ______
  2. What is volume? ______
  3. What is pressure? ______
  4. Why does air exert pressure? ______
  5. What are the two main types of tools used to measure air pressure? ______
  6. What units measure the air pressure? ______
  7. Why does a change in altitude have an effect on air pressure? What is the relationship between air pressure and density on altitude? ______

Key Terms:

1.density 2.pressure 3.air pressure 4.barometer 5.mercury barometer 6.aneroid barometer 7.altitude

Key Ideas:

  1. Properties of air include mass, density and pressure
  2. Air pressure is the result of the weight of a column of air pushing down on an area
  3. Air pressure is measured with mercury and aneroid barometers
  4. Air pressure decreases as altitude increases, so does density

Section 4: Layers of the Atmosphere

Objectives:

  1. Describe the characteristics of the main layers of the atmosphere

Concept Review

  1. How are the layers of the atmosphere classified? ______
  2. List 3 characteristics of the Troposphere ______
  3. List three characteristics of the Stratosphere ______
  4. List two characteristics of the Mesosphere ______
  5. List two characteristics of the Thermosphere ______
  6. What are the two sub-layers of the Thermosphere divided into? ______

Key Terms:

1.Troposphere 2.Stratosphere 3.Mesosphere 4.Thermosphere 5.Exosphere 6.Ionosphere 7.Aurora Borealis

Key Ideas:

  1. The four main layers of the atmosphere are classified according to change in temperature, these layers are the Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, and the Thermosphere
  2. Rain, snow, and most clouds occur in the Troposphere
  3. Ozone in the stratosphere absorbs energy from the sun
  4. Most meteoroids burn up in the Mesosphere producing meteoroid trails
  5. The Aurora Borealis occurs in the ionosphere
  6. Communication satellites orbit earth in the exosphere