Earth's Atmosphere: Temperature, Pressure & Density FAQs

[Serj]

I am searching for graphs to answer te following questions but I cannot find it on the internet. What is the temperature, density ,and pressure of the atmosphere as altitude changes? What is the temperature of the thermosphere at night?

 

[matthyaouw]

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/atmosphere/atmosphere/layers.gif

That sort of graph comes up quite frequently in textbooks I've seen. I hope it answers your questions.
I'm not at all sure about daily variations in temperature at high altitude, but I would imagine that they would be less varied than those on the suface, being that they are not influenced by air masses, differential heating of land and sea etc. I may be wrong however.

 

[Mental Gridlock]

That's an excellent graph to help with the first question but for the second the x-axis isn't big enough for the thermosphere, which gets hotter than 1500-o C in the daytime but still 500-o C at night. The density is always decreasing as you go higher unlike the confusing temps that change so therefore when you go to the thermosphere/ionosphere there's so few particles that they don't have to share much and they all get first dibs on a buffet of solar energy giving them high temps, but since there aren't many they don't transfer much heat and so you would be very cold..

www.ess.washington.edu/Space/ESS205/upperatmweb.pdf

http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/Atmosphere/Older/Temperature.html

 

[nscerqueira]

The hole of ozone

I would like to ask why the ozone hole is in the pole.
Is it due to the electromagnetic field "movements" of the earth?
Because is due to this electromegnetic field that the atmosphere protect us from the cosmic rays but this protection is rather small in the poles (is this true?).

Thanks in advance: NSCerqueira

 

[Andre]

ozon is produced by Ultra violet light of the sun but it's also dissociated by normal light or due to chemical reactions. This gives a balanced reaction

Now in wintertime the pole area is dark, no direct sunlight and consequently, getting absolutely no utraviolet light, since that's all absorbed in the atmosphere or on the surface. Consequently the production of ozone stops completely. The decompostion of ozone continues, business as usual, since the chemicals are still there and some light reflected from the Earth will still pass along the polar area.

So what's happening to a mill, with no production and a lot of trade? Stock depletes in no time. That's why there are holes in the ozone layer. No production, plenty of trade.

But it's also natural.

 

[nscerqueira]

Thanks for the reply. But the ozone hole only appears in the north pole isn't? But during the summer in the north hemisphere, the south pole doesn't have any sun light like in the winter in the north pole. Therefore the ozone hole should also appear in that region ?

 

[Andre]

Logical thinking gets rewarded.

Here is your http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/tovsto/archive/anim/970901-971018.sp.gif

 

[X-43D]

It might be possible to create ozone from rust (ferric oxide) with more advanced technology, similar to electrolysis. Ozone is important because it cools the planet.

 

[Mk]

Uhm... did I miss something? Where does the ferrous oxide come in?

Ozone cools the planet? To what extent? How?