News tagged with upper atmosphere
Satellite observes spatiotemporal variations in mid-upper tropospheric methane over China
As a principal greenhouse gas, atmospheric methane is important to atmospheric chemical processes and climate change. In Vol. 56 of the Chinese Science Bulletin, a paper identified spatiotemporal variations of methane in the ...
Jan 20, 2012 |
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Climate balancing: Sea-level rise vs. surface temperature change rates
Engineering our way out of global climate warming may not be as easy as simply reducing the incoming solar energy, according to a team of University of Bristol and Penn State climate scientists. Designing the approach to ...
Jan 18, 2012 |
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Mars-bound NASA rover aiming for an August landing
A NASA spacecraft hurtling toward Mars prepared to fire its thrusters Wednesday to put itself on course for an August landing.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 11, 2012 |
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Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft: Trajectory maneuver slated for Jan. 11
(PhysOrg.com) -- An engine firing on Jan. 11 will be the biggest maneuver that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft will perform on its flight between Earth and Mars.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 09, 2012 |
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Upper atmosphere facilitates changes that let mercury enter food chain
Humans pump thousands of tons of vapor from the metallic element mercury into the atmosphere each year, and it can remain suspended for long periods before being changed into a form that is easily removed from the atmosphere.
Dec 18, 2011 |
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NASA Mars-bound rover begins research in space
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red Planet.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 14, 2011 |
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The high winds of the upper atmosphere contain less renewable energy than previously assumed
It seems that the energy mix of the future will have to differ from the current suggestions of some visionaries. This is because the jet streams that sweep the upper atmosphere with high winds would yield ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Dec 12, 2011 |
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Life possible on 'large parts' of Mars: study
Australian scientists who modelled conditions on Mars to examine how much of the red planet was habitable said that "large regions" could sustain life.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 12, 2011 |
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NASA's Nanosail-D 'sails' home -- mission complete
After spending more than 240 days "sailing" around the Earth, NASA's NanoSail-D -- a nanosatellite that deployed NASA's first-ever solar sail in low-Earth orbit -- has successfully completed its Earth orbiting ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 30, 2011 |
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New NASA missions to investigate how Mars turned hostile
(PhysOrg.com) -- Maybe because it appears as a speck of blood in the sky, the planet Mars was named after the Roman god of war. From the point of view of life as we know it, that's appropriate. The Martian ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 18, 2011 |
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Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic flying bomb
The Pentagon on Thursday held a successful test flight of a flying bomb that travels faster than the speed of sound and will give military planners the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in less than a hour.
Nov 17, 2011 |
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Russia's attempts to save Mars probe unsuccessful (Update)
As Russia's space agency struggled Thursday to fix a probe bound for a moon of Mars that instead got stuck in Earth's orbit, some experts said the chances of saving the $170 million craft looked slim.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 10, 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 |
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Firestation in space to open firehose of lightning data
(PhysOrg.com) -- When opportunity knocked, NASA heliophysicist Doug Rowland answered. He and his team recently secured another flight opportunity for a pint-sized instrument studying lightning in Earth's upper ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 19, 2011 |
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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 |
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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.
