GEOG 1280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 33: Mean Free Path, Felix Baumgartner, Noble Gas
17 May 2017
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Document Summary
An envelope of gases that is intimately related to all aspects of the earth"s surface which stretches from the surface of the earth to 10, 000 + km (6000+ miles) into space. Atmospheric gases rapidly decrease with increasing distance from the surface. (thins out) greatest atmospheric pressures near the ground. Mean free path another way to think about atmospheric gas density. Distance a molecule travels before hitting another molecule. At sea level free path is 6. 5 x 10-6 cm. At 160km elevation free path is 5000cm (50m: felix baumgartner broke sound barrier, went up 38km. 97% of gases are within 30km of surface. About 50% of gases within 6km: gases very concentrated close to the earth"s surface. Traces of neon, helium, methane*, krypton, h2, xe, nxox* (nitrous oxides) Non-variant gases always in the same proportion under 80km. H2o vapour is highly variable in time and place, ozone o3, ammonia nh3, h2s, Water vapour is primary source of atmospheric moisture weather.
