The Atmosphere
The lowest layer of the atmosphere where weather happens.
What is the troposphere?
Pollutants released directly into the air from human or natural sources.
What are primary pollutants?
The type of smog caused by burning coal (gray-air).
What is industrial smog?
Pollutants that fall as wet or dry particles or solutions.
What is acid deposition?
U.S. law that regulates air pollution and sets emission limits.
What is the Clean Air Act?
The layer of the atmosphere that contains the ozone layer.
What is the stratosphere?
Pollutants formed when primary pollutants react in the atmosphere.
What are secondary pollutants?
Smog formed by sunlight acting on VOCs and NOx (brown-air smog).
What is photochemical smog?
When a layer of warm air traps cold air and pollutants near the ground.
What is a temperature inversion?
A system where companies buy or sell allowances for pollution emissions.
What is emissions trading (cap and trade)?
The thin blanket of gases surrounding Earth.
What is the atmosphere?
A gas released mainly from burning fossil fuels that becomes sulfuric acid.
What is sulfur dioxide?
Organic gases that easily evaporate from paints, cleaners, and fuels.
What are VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)?
The process that forms sulfuric acid from sulfur dioxide.
What is atmospheric chemical reaction / oxidation?
The protective region in the stratosphere that absorbs UV radiation.
What is the ozone layer?
Long-term patterns of temperature and precipitation.
What is climate?
A dangerous indoor gas that seeps into homes from the ground.
What is radon?
Secondary pollutants formed from VOCs + NOx; eye irritants.
What are Peroxyacyl Nitrates (PANs)?
Pollution that occurs inside buildings and can be worse than outdoor air.
What is indoor air pollution?
A strong acid formed from sulfur dioxide reacting in the atmosphere.
What is sulfuric acid?
Short-term changes in temperature, precipitation, and humidity.
What is weather?
Tiny solid or liquid particles that stay suspended in the air.
What is Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM)?
A secondary pollutant that forms when nitrogen oxides react with water vapor.
What is nitric acid?
The thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer from CFCs and other chemicals.
What is ozone depletion?
A type of air pollution control that lets companies stay under an emissions limit by using fewer permits.
What is cap-and-trade / emissions trading?