Meet Your Atmosphere
What we call the atmosphere comes in five main layers, from the top: exosphere, thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere and troposphere.
Where can you go for a breath of fresh air? Take a tour of the galaxy and find out.
Molecules in the air include primarily nitrogen and oxygen as well as water, carbon dioxide, ozone, and many other compounds in trace amounts.
Visit the Oxygen Theater and journey into the cartoon world of an Oxygen atom.
My, How You've Changed
When Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago from a hot mix of gases and solids, it had almost no atmosphere.Illustration by Peter Sawyer © Smithsonian Institution
This fragment of a meteorite landed in Murchison, Australia, in 1969. It contained many amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.Photo Chip Clark © Smithsonian Institution
About two billion years ago, the methane haze cleared, and the sky turned blue, reflected in the water below.Illustration by Mary Parrish © Smithsonian Institution
You, like all aerobic organisms, use oxygen to release energy from the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in your food—metabolism.
As plants became firmly established on land, life once again had a major effect on Earth’s atmosphere.Illustration by Mary Parrish © Smithsonian Institution
During the Eocene Epoch, alligator relatives swam in the swamps on Ellesmere Island and mammals climbed in the dawn redwood trees. Illustration by Bob Hynes © Smithsonian Institution
Atmosphere Transports
NASA’s TOMS (total ozone mapping spectrometer) detects dust streaming from Northern China to the United States.Photo © Colin Seftor (Raytheon) and Christina Hsu (UMBC)
Satellite view of the plume of smoke and ash from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, Phillipines.Photo courtesy of NASA/JSC Digital Image Collection
Dust from Asia is seen streaming eastward toward the Pacific Ocean in this satellite view, where red is the highest concentration of dust.Photo © Colin Seftor (Raytheon) and Christina Hsu (UMBC)
A dust storm roils over the Sahara Desert, covering several hundred miles of Algeria and Libya.Photo © CORBIS
Intruments on the AURA satellite monitor air pollution around the world on a daily basis. View the "Blowin in the Wind" video to see images from the AURA satellite.
Satellite image of dust blowing over North Africa and the Middle East.Photo © Jay Herman, NASA GSFC
Smoke from a forest fire in the Canadian Rockies can block sunlight in the midwestern United States.Photo © Todd Gipstein/National Geographic/Getty Images
Smoke from forest fires in Quebec in July 2002 reached Boston in just a few days.Photo © Digital Vision/Getty Images
A TOMS satellite image of smoke from forest fires shows the spread of smoke from Canadian fires to New England and the Mid-Atlantic States.Photo courtesy of Jay Herman, NASA GSFC
A MODIS satellite image of smoke from forest fires shows the spread of smoke from Canadian fires to New England and the Mid-Atlantic States.Photo courtesy of Yorum Kaufman, NASA GSFC
Atmosphere Protects
This impact crater in Winslow, Arizona, is one of about 200 on Earth.Photo © Charles and Josette Lenars/CORBIS
The sun’s energy is concentrated around the visible spectrum. UVB radiation is strongest in the middle of the day, when the sun is high in the sky and your shadow is short.
A special ultraviolet camera makes it possible to see the underlying skin damage done by the sun.Poster © American Academy of Dermatology
The Aura Earth-observing satellite gives us the ability to measure changes in climate and air quality and in the health of the ozone layer.Photo courtesy of NASA/GSFC
View the Ozone Hole animation to see changes in the ozone layer since 1972.
In the stratosphere, oxygen atoms are constantly changing from ozone (three atoms) to oxygen gas (two atoms) and atomic oxygen (one atom) and back.
Some heating of the atmosphere occurs when molecules, aerosols, and particles in the air absorb radiation from the sun.
Some heating occurs from contact with Earth’s surface, which absorbs most of the sun’s energy and emits long-wave radiation back into the atmosphere.
A steady rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been measured atop the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii since 1958.
Atmosphere Reacts
It didn’t happen overnight. People have been affecting the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years.
The invention of the steam engine in 1789 marks the start of the Industrial Revolution. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
On October 20, 1954, in Pasadena, California, homemakers protest 15 days of foul-smelling air pollution.Photo © Bettmann/CORBIS
The spots on these leaves are damage caused by ozone exposure. Specimen courtesy of Dr. Gretchen Smith, Department of Natural Resource Conservation, University of Massachusetts. Photo by Siobhan Starrs © Smithsonian Institution
Atmosphere Explorers
Pat Neale uses the SR-18 UV monitor to measure ultraviolet light reaching Earth’s surface. Photo Chip Clark © Smithsonian Institution
Dr. Bert Drake has studied plant responses to carbon dioxide under controlled conditions longer than anyone else. Photo © Dr. Bert Drake
Dr. Scott Wing has used Ginko fossils to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the Eocene.Photo by James DiLoreto © Smithsonian Institution
Phil Gingerich has studied the effect of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum's release of carbon dioxide into the environment.Illustration by Rebecca Horwitt © Smithsonian Institution
Exhibit Interactives
Atmosphere Design Lab: What if you could increase or decrease the amounts of oxygen, carbon dioxide and ozone on Earth?
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