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The Earth has a
moderately dense atmosphere
and usually half of its surface is covered with clouds. The atmosphere
extends hundreds of miles upwards. The higher we go, the thinner it
becomes.
It is, in fact, a mixture of many gases and water vapor.
Atmosphere exists in different layers.
Different layers have different properties. The lowest
layer,
called troposphere, contains all phenomena that make up our
weather. It extends up to about 50 km from the surface. There is around 78
per cent nitrogen, 21 per cent oxygen, and minor percentage of argon,
carbon dioxide, neon, helium and methane.
Above this, there is stratosphere. It is made up of lighter oxygen
and ozone, helium and hydrogen. Here the air is always clear and pure.
Though its lower part is cold, higher up it gets unbearably hot.
In its uppermost reaches, called ionosphere, the atmosphere is
charged with subatomic particles. Even the charged particles reflect the
radio waves. Without it we would not have long-distance radio
communication. Especially when there was no artificial satellite.
While oxygen is must for a life to live on, each of the gases in the
mixture has a role to play. The plants need carbon dioxide, a part of the
mixture, for making their food. Nitrogen is also required by some plants.
Ozone absorbs most of the very
harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun.
Thus
the living organisms are saved from the extinction.
Water vapor is present in the lower atmosphere, say up to 12 km. Though
its amount is small, but its importance is very great. For, without it,
there would be no water on Earth. Water enters the atmosphere by
evaporation from the hydrosphere. It leaves the atmosphere by
precipitations, either as rain or snow.
Clouds are made of water vapor that has evaporated from
the Earth. They
are very tiny droplets of microscopic size and are too light
to fall down
as rain. So they ride on the air waves until they condense and
then fall
down as rain. Its like a never ending two way traffic. For, the day it
stops all our life will be in danger.
With all these, the atmosphere protects us from meteors and
radiation and
supplies the gases for the plants and animals to live on.
And it is the Earth's gravity that binds the atmosphere to the surface.
Gravity is the force with which Earth pulls everything on or near the
surface towards its center. Due to this gravity we can all talk and
listen, walk and run, gulp and gobble up and do a plenty of necessary
things. Moon, the Earth's solitary satellite, has also gravity. But it's
too weak to hold much air, save some traces of gases.
So, not just the atmosphere, or the gravity. Things with the Earth are so finely balanced that
they just rightly serve our purpose. Nothing more. Nothing less
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Exosphere
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Ionosphere
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Stratosphere
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Troposphere
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