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Atmosphere: Meaning
The atmosphere is a multi-layered gaseous cover that surrounds the earth and is an important component of the natural environment and Biospheric ecosystem because it contains all the necessary gases, heat, and water for the existence of all living beings in the biosphere.
This multi-layered gaseous cover is hanging near to the surface under the pull of the earth’s gravitational force. It has a thickness of more than thousands of kilometers above the earth’s surface. It has been estimated 16 to 29 thousand kilometers from the sea level. This dick extensive envelope of gas around the earth is called as atmosphere. Because of the existence of the atmosphere the earth is a unique planet on which life is found.
Significance or Importance of the Atmosphere
The atmosphere affects our life and actions in different ways as discussed below.
1. It offers life to both animals and plant species on the earth’s surface. Because it contains CO2 for plants and oxygen for man and animals. Plant uses CO2 in the photosynthesis process and animals & man breathe in oxygen.
2. The physical and chemical processes of the atmosphere and the elements of weather and climate such as heat, temperature, air pressure, wind, humidity, cloudiness, rainfall, atmospheric storms, etc., have influenced and controlled the origin, growth and development of plants and animals (including humans), in the biosphere.
3. It controls the flow of energy from the sun to the earth and from the earth to space and regulates the temperature on the earth’s surface. It is transparent for shortwave radiation, especially for visible light and opaque for long-wave terrestrial radiation from the earth’s surface. Therefore, it keeps the earth’s average temperature at about 15°C. If there were no atmosphere the temperatures of the earth would soar to over 200° Fahrenheit in the daytime and drop to approximately -300° at night.
4. It protects us from the ultraviolet rays which are very injurious to the plants and animals on the earth’s surface. The ozone gas (O3) in the atmosphere absorbs the ultraviolet solar radiation waves and prevents the surface from overheating.
5. It acts as a storehouse of water vapors that produce condensation and precipitation on the surface of the earth.
6. It is also useful for the development of communication systems through electronic media. Radio waves transmitted from the earth’s surface, return from the ionosphere in the atmosphere.
7. It prevents us from celestial bodies like meteors coming from space. Meteors get destroyed before reaching the earth’s surface because the air in the atmosphere offers resistance to objects which move through it so the friction which results when meteors pass through the outer atmosphere creates sufficient heat to destroy most of them.
8. Any change in the composition of the atmosphere, i.e., proportion of different gases, by anthropogenic factors will disturb the atmospheric equilibrium and may cause various environmental problems, like atmospheric pollution, global warming, and climate changes.
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