The Atmosphere and the Weather

The Atmosphere

Earth's atmosphere is a thin, gaseous envelope that surounds Earth. It contains a mixture of individual gas molecules, microscopically small suspended particles of solid and liquid, and falling precipitation.

Meteorology is the study of the atmosphere and the processes (such as cloud formation, lightning, and the movement of the wind) that cause what we refer to as "weather".

If Earth were to shrink to the size of a large beach ball, its inhabitable atmosphere would be thinner than a piece of paper.

Despite its relative thickness, the atmosphere contains considerable mass. The total mass of the atmosphere, 5.14 x 10¹⁵ (i.e., 5,140,000,000,000,000) kilograms (kg), is equivalent to 5.65 billion million tons.

In this section we will focus on a number of important concepts and ideas about Earth's atmosphere.

First, we will focus on what is the atmosphere is made of, or its composition, then on its evolution, and finally on its vertical structure.