Earth’s Atmosphere Study Guide
Use your notes to find the answers to the study guide. You may need to refer to the science book in some questions, but most should be in your notes. Please see Miss Brown if you have any questions.
1. What is the atmosphere?
Layer of gases that surround Earth
2. Why is Earth’s atmosphere important to living things?
Provides all the gases that living things need to survive
3. How does trapping energy from the sun in Earth’s atmosphere effect water (what does it do to water)?
Allows water to exist as a liquid
4. What interacts with pollutants to produce photochemical smog?
sunlight
5. What instrument is used to measure air pressure?
barometer
6. As you rise upwards in the atmosphere, air pressure does what?
decreases
7. Know that when you climb high mountains, you give out of breath easily because there is less oxygen in each cubic meter of air.
8. What layer of the atmosphere does weather occur in?
troposphere
9. What does the ozone layer protect living things on Earth from?
Ultraviolent radiation
10. What layer of the atmosphere protects Earth’s surface from being hit by most meteoroids?
mesosphere
11. Most the energy that heats Earth’s atmosphere is what? (Think of the heat WE can FEEL)
infrared radiation
12. Heat that is transferred by CONTACT is called what?
conduction
13. Heat from the sun reaches you by what method?
Radiation
14. Convection takes place because cold air _____ and warm air _____? (Remember cold air is more dense than warm air and the more dense something is the heavier)
sinks, rises
15. Winds are caused by differences in what?
Air pressure
16. Know that global winds generally blow from specific directions over long distances.
17. Earth’s rotation makes global winds curve. This is called the ______Effect.
Coriolis Effect
18. What type of gas makes up 21% of the atmosphere?
oxygen
19. What layer of the atmosphere do people live in?
troposphere
20. If you TOUCH a hot spoon how is heat being transferred from the spoon to your hand?
conduction
21. List earth’s major wind belts:
1.trade winds
2.prevaling westerlies
3.polar easterlies
22. What is the condition of Earth’s atmosphere at a particular time and place called?
weather
23. Acid rain can form when what mixes with sulfur oxides to form sulfuric acid?
water
24. Because air has mass, it exerts a force per unit area called what?
Air pressure
25. How are the layers of the atmosphere classified?
temperature
26. In this layer of the atmosphere energy from the sun strikes gas molecules and causes them to glow? (What layer is the northern lights in)
ionosphere
27. Energy travels through space to Earth in the form of ______waves.
Electromagnetic waves
28. Gases in the air hold much of the energy that is radiated from Earth’s surface in a process called what?
Greenshouse effect
If you are given a diagram like the one below know how to put the layers of the atmosphere in order. Know the things I specifically told you to highlight in your notes about each layer.
1. troposphere
2. stratosphere
3. mesosphere
4. thermosphere
5. exosphere
Essay
Choose TWO essays and answer completely. You can use your notes, the science book, or the Internet. IF you use the internet please provide the web address you got your answer from. You are NOT to use each other to answer the essay questions, but you can ask Miss Brown for help. You may handwrite your response on this paper or you can type them. Essays will be due on test day.
1. Describe three ways that the atmosphere helps living things survive on Earth.
2. Contrast three ways in which heat is transferred.
3. Describe the Air Quality Index (AQI) and why it’s important to check during certain times of the year.