ENV100H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 39: Mixing Ratio, Air Mass, Relative Humidity

• School: UTSG
• Department: School of Environment
• Course: ENV100H1
• Professor: Barbara Murck

Document Summary

Atmosphere thin layer of gases that surrounds a planet or moon: earth"s. Transports and recycles water, heat, pollutants, nutrients. Human activity is changing amounts of some gases: affects functioning of atmosphere. Vertical differences in temp, density, and composition. Variable components: water vapor, carbon dioxide increasing. Atmospheric pressure force per unit area produced by an overlying column of air. Most gas molecules gathered at the surface rather than higher in atmosphere. Relative humidity ratio of water vapor in a volume of air, compared to the amount it could contain at a given temperature. Atmospheric layers are defined by changes in: temperature, composition. Troposphere: lowest part of atmo, from surface up to around 10-11 km. Thinner near poles, thicker near equator: most important for us because air we breathe, contains most mass of atmosphere, most weather generated, well-mixed, temperature in troposphere decreases with altitude. Warmer at surface, gets colder as you go higher. Troposphere heated from below, from the surface: tropopause.