Between the homosphere and the heterosphere, which one has the gases in layers?
Heterosphere
Which specialized layer of the atmosphere can reflect radio waves?
Ionosphere
What is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere?
Nitrogen
What is the rate of flow of radiant energy from the sun that reaches the earth through space?
Solar constant
Which of the atmosphere's layers contains most of the weather?
Troposphere
Why is the magnetosphere not spherical?
It is pushed away from the sun by solar wind
What is the heaviest gas in the atmosphere?
Molecular nitrogen (N3)
Light energy is the same as what?
Electromagnetic energy
Daily Double!
What are the two most abundant greenhouse gases?
Carbon dioxide and water vapor
What is significant about the ozone layer?
It absorbs harmful UV radiation.
According to Old-Earth scientists, which came first, aerobic or anaerobic bacteria?
Anaerobic bacteria
What are jet streams?
Paths in the stratosphere that can blow as fast as 248 mph
List four vital roles of the Earth's atmosphere.
Protection from space debris
Protection from solar wind
Trapping heat in the atmosphere
Providing oxygen for life
List two ways that carbon can get into the atmosphere.
Animals breathing it out
Byproducts of certain manufacturing processes
Rising air is an example of...
Convection
Which type of heat transfer can happen in space?
Radiation
Draw a diagram of the earth's atmosphere with all of its layers (there's 9)
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria: convert atmospheric nitrogen into a nitrogen compound that living things can use
Denitrifying bacteria: the transfer of nitrogen compounds in the soil to atmospheric nitrogen
What is the greenhouse effect?
The trapping of heat by the earth's atmosphere
What are the Van Allen Belts?
Regions of dangerous radiation inside the magnetosphere