The Atmosphere

In this section we look at the Earth’s Atmosphere, the predominantly gaseous envelope that surrounds the other spheres. First, we give an outline of the composition of the Atmosphere: what gases are included and how they behave. Then we look at atmospheric circulation: how air moves around the Earth in response to incoming solar energy under the influence of the Earth’s rotation. In a third chapter we look at how these changes produce the weather that influences us on a day to day basis. Long-term averaged weather is called climate, but understanding climate requrires us understand interactions with the other spheres of the Earth, so climate is covered in a later section.