Atmospheric Layers
This is the layer closest to Earth where weather occurs.
What is the troposphere?
This greenhouse gas is released when humans burn fossil fuels and is the most talked-about in climate change.
What is carbon dioxide?
This surface—air, land, or water—heats up the fastest.
What is land?
This layer blocks harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.
What is the ozone layer?
This gas makes up about 78% of Earth's atmosphere.
What is nitrogen?
This layer contains the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful UV rays.
What is the Stratosphere?
This greenhouse gas is released by livestock and landfills and is more powerful than CO₂.
What is methane?
This surface takes the longest to heat up but also stays warm the longest.
What is water?
Overuse of aerosol chemicals once created one of these over Antarctica.
What is an ozone hole?
This gas makes up about 21% of Earth’s atmosphere and is essential for breathing.
What is oxygen?
This layer is the hottest layer of the atmosphere because it absorbs the Sun’s energy.
What is the thermosphere?
This gas makes up most of the air we breathe but is not a greenhouse gas.
What is nitrogen?
When sunlight warms the ground and the warm air rises, this type of heat transfer occurs.
What is convection?
UV radiation can damage this part of a human cell.
What is DNA?
These are trace gases that make up less than 1% of the atmosphere.
What are argon, CO₂, and other gases?
This very thin layer gradually fades into outer space.
What is the exosphere?
This greenhouse gas helps trap heat and is released naturally through evaporation.
What is water vapor?
Sunlight traveling through space to reach Earth is an example of this kind of heat transfer.
What is radiation?
The ozone layer is located in this atmospheric layer.
What is the stratosphere?
Smoke from human activities increases particulates in the air, especially from this common source.
What is burning fossil fuels?
This gas in the stratosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation.
What is ozone?
The process where greenhouse gases trap heat and warm the planet is called this.
What is the greenhouse effect?
In an investigation, if you use identical lamps on soil, air, and water, this is the variable you are testing.
What is the rate at which different materials heat up?
These international agreements helped reduce ozone-destroying chemicals.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
This gas is essential for photosynthesis and is also a greenhouse gas.
What is carbon dioxide?