Can CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere sublimate into a solid?

[Jim Stoffaire]

CO2 becomes a solid at -78.5 C or -109.3 F. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was on Antarctica at -89.2 C or -128.6 F. So is it possible for CO2 to literally freeze out of Earth's atmosphere under certain conditions?
If not then why not?

 

[BvU]

Google is your friend. A simple search on 'co2 freezing temperature' tells you why not in the first link <link removed> shown !

 

[RogueOne]

On the topic of CO₂ changing forms and leaving the atmosphere, I think its good for newcomers to read this about the topic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonate–silicate_cycle

I am not calling you a newcomer, specifically. I'm posting this for readers who are interested in the ways CO₂ changes forms. The carbonate-silicate cycle is important to understand when thinking of a topic like sublimation of CO₂.

I'm glad that it doesn't sublimate near atmospheric temp, otherwise 60 gigatons of carbon would become gaseous again whenever the temps rose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle I'm also linking readers to the Wikipedia page on the Carbon Cycle. If you don't like Wikipedia, then you can read through the numerous well-regarded articles that these pages reference.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaw...sitive_feedback_and_runaway_greenhouse_effect

 

[DrClaude]

Google is your friend. A simple search on 'co2 freezing temperature' tells you why not in the first link <link removed> shown !

Unfortunately, that link is to an unacceptable source.

 

[BvU]

Unfortunately, that link is to an unacceptable source.

Beginner's mistake. Sorry about that. Also forgot to Jim !

Remains that

CO2 becomes a solid at -78.5 C or -109.3 F.

if the CO2 vapour pressure is 1 atmosphere. With a partial pressure of around 0.0004 atm (0.3 mm Hg) that drops to about -137 C. (Exhaled air: 30 mm Hg, -110 C).

 

[Baluncore]

Liquid nitrogen is thought to be a component of noctilucent clouds. So that is one place in the atmosphere where you might find CO₂ ice.
https://www.universetoday.com/95957...as-seen-from-the-international-space-station/

Noctilucent Clouds form at an altitude of about 80 km from water ice. The temperatures can be very low, but the air pressure is also very low.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud

Clouds of solid CO₂ crystals have been observed in the Martian atmosphere. But there is very much less CO₂ in the Earth's atmosphere. I would expect the minor presence of CO₂ ice in noctilucent clouds would be masked by the water ice. Some CO₂ might form in or on the surface of the water ice.

I remember seeing a paper on N₂ and CO₂ in upper atmosphere clouds above the poles in winter. I will try to find it.

 

[sysprog]

The coldest atmospheric temperatures are in the mesopause layer, and although they are colder than dry ice, the <1 ATM vapor pressure lowers the temperature necessary to produce sublimation, and more insurmountably, the CO2 atmospheric concentration is too low to form other than miniscule solid particles -- otherwise we would sometimes find dry ice in Antarctica.

 

[darth boozer]

Deposition is a thermodynamic process, a phase transition in which gas transforms into solid without passing through theliquid phase. The reverse of deposition is sublimation and hence sometimes deposition is called desublimation. So, a gas can't sublimate into a solid.

 

[Lowedown]

A good salesman could sell dry ice in Antarctica to the gullible science types there.

 

[Lowedown]

CO2 becomes a solid at -78.5 C or -109.3 F. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was on Antarctica at -89.2 C or -128.6 F. So is it possible for CO2 to literally freeze out of Earth's atmosphere under certain conditions?
If not then why not?

Atmospheric pressure is another factor. Under water at high pressures CO2 could solidify.