News tagged with upper atmosphere
Wild blue yonder: Engineers tackle challenges of hypersonic flight
(Phys.org) -- Aeronautical engineers believe hypersonic planes flying at seven to 15 times the speed of sound will someday change the face of air and space travel. That is, if they can master such flight's known unknowns.
May 16, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Tempest-from-hell seen on Saturn
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft now have the first-ever, up-close details of a Saturn storm that is eight times the surface area of Earth.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 06, 2011 |
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Link between air pollution and cyclone intensity in Arabian Sea
Pollution is making Arabian Sea cyclones more intense, according to a study in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 02, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
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Solar storm dumps gigawatts into Earth's upper atmosphere
A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles. NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough energy in Earth’s ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 23, 2012 |
5 / 5 (12) |
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Could solar wind power Earth?
(PhysOrg.com) -- As we strive to find sources of alternative energy, a number of researchers continue to look to what we consider the ultimate in renewable energy -- the sun. However, on earth creating efficient ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Oct 04, 2010 |
4.1 / 5 (27) |
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NASA's New Eye on the Sun Delivers Stunning First Images (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is returning early images that confirm an unprecedented new capability for scientists to better understand our sun’s dynamic processes. ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 21, 2010 |
5 / 5 (29) |
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Man-made aurora to help predict space weather
(PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 25 years, our understanding of terrestrial space weather has been partly based on incorrect assumptions about how nitrogen, the most abundant gas in our atmosphere, reacts when ...
Jun 08, 2010 |
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Scientists discover surprise in Earth's upper atmosphere
(PhysOrg.com) -- UCLA atmospheric scientists have discovered a previously unknown basic mode of energy transfer from the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere. The research, federally funded by the National ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 10, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (23) |
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Fireball over California/Nevada: How big was it?
(Phys.org) -- A bright ball of light traveling east to west was seen over the skies of central/northern California Sunday morning, April 22. The former space rock-turned-flaming-meteor entered Earth's atmosphere ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Apr 25, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (6) |
3
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With new technique, astronomers find potassium in giant planet's atmosphere
(PhysOrg.com) -- Any driver who's seen deer silhouetted by the headlights of an oncoming car knows that vital information can be conveyed by the outlines of objects.
Aug 31, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (13) |
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Moon's shadow, like a ship, creates waves
During a solar eclipse, the Moon's passage overhead blocks out the majority of the Sun's light and casts a wide swath of the Earth into darkness. The land under the Moon's shadow receives less incoming energy ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 05, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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New technique helps search for another Earth (Update)
The quest to find another world that sustains life has been boosted by a technique that should let less expensive ground-based telescopes join the search, a study said on Wednesday.
Feb 03, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (23) |
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Zapping Titan-like atmosphere with UV rays creates life precursors
The first experimental evidence showing how atmospheric nitrogen can be incorporated into organic macromolecules is being reported by a University of Arizona team.
Jun 29, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (17) |
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New Images Indicate Object Hits Jupiter
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 21, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (24) |
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New buoys enable submerged subs to communicate
(PhysOrg.com) -- Communicating with a submerged submarine has always been difficult, and since the submarine has to come up to periscope depth it has also been risky. Now a new buoy developed by Lockheed Martin ...
Jul 13, 2010 |
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Earth's atmosphere
The Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by the Earth's gravity. It has a mass of about five quadrillion metric tons. Dry air contains roughly (by volume) 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1%. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing temperature extremes between day and night.
There is no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. It slowly becomes thinner and fades into space. An altitude of 120 km (75 mi) marks the boundary where atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry. The Kármán line, at 100 km (62 mi), is also frequently regarded as the boundary between atmosphere and outer space. Three quarters of the atmosphere's mass is within 11 km (6.8 mi; 36,000 ft) of the surface.
For more information about Earth's atmosphere, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
