distribution of molecules throughout the atmosphere

charmedbeauty

Hi I was wondering if anyone knows about how molecules are distributed throughout various layers of the atmosphere.

My assumption is that most molecules would be more abundant in the troposphere and decrease throughout until the mesosphere.

does anyone know a little more about this or any links I can't seem to find what I'm looking for on the net.

Im interested in the greenhouse gas molecules (CO2, H2O, CH4, N2O) how are they distributed throughout the various layers?

I know water vapour is more abundant near water obviously but I'm more concerned with longitudinal ratios etc.

again any links would be great because I have to reference it, and ratios between each layer would be good thanks.

Simon Bridge

Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere.
http://paoc.mit.edu/labweb/notes/chap3.pdf
... sort of thing you are looking for.

Its something that has had a lot of research eg HIPPO:
http://ncar.ucar.edu/press/hippo-tak...c-constituents
... so you are pretty much spoiled for choice.

charmedbeauty

Thanks a bunch Simon.

charmedbeauty

Not really what I am looking for actually it does not have any distrubution levels of GHG's throughout the atmosphere all I could find was a temp v. latitude graph (interesting) but I am more needing a (CO2 vs latitude) graph or even better one for all GHG's.

Thank's anyway

Simon Bridge

That's right - I was presenting it as an example of the sort of thing you need to look for and how to phrase your searches. It is not the end of your search. You can use the information in the pdf to help you understand your querie and so refine your search-terms... do not expect to find all the info you want in one place or in a form that is just right for what you want. The pdf includes a "further reading" example as well.

Note - there is a difference between "latitude" and altitude".

haruspex

Search for homosphere, heterosphere, turbopause. From my reading, it's all pretty evenly mixed up to 100km (H2O excepted, I'm sure).

charmedbeauty

Ok thanks.

D H

Yep. The turbopause marks the altitude at which the atmosphere transitions from behaving like a classical gas to behaving like a bunch of weakly-interacting free particles with very large mean free paths.

H₂O excepted, of course. Note that due to its abundance compared to other greenhouse gases, water is the most potent greenhouse gas of all. Another exception is O₃, which is also a greenhouse gas. Ozone exists primarily in the stratosphere due to sunlight and near the Earth's surface largely due to human pollution.