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Weather Conditions
Name: ______________________________

What Makes Up Earths Atmosphere?

1. The Air You Breathe
Nearly all living things need ______ to carry out their life processes. _________________ the layer of air that surrounds our planet.

a. Formed _____________ of years ago when the gases from erupting volcanoes collected around the planet. b. Bacteria and other living things used these poisonous gases in their life process and released new gases forming the present atmosphere. c. Made up of billions of billions gas particles. - 4/5 nitrogen - 1/5 ___________ d. Around 1% is made up of other gases such as carbon dioxide and __________ vapor. The carbon and water vapor absorb heat energy from the sun and Earths surface keeping the planet warm.

Did you know? - Air takes up space and has weight! _____________________- the force exerted on you by the weight of tiny particles of air.

Air Pressure

Air particles in the upper atmosphere are far apart. The air is less dense and therefore there is less air pressure.

Air particles in the lower atmosphere are close together. The air is denser and therefore there is more air pressure.

Air Pressure Activity:

1. Each table with get 4 paper plates. 2. Each one of you will be in charge of a paper plate labeled 1-4. 3. Each plate represents a different layer of the Atmosphere. 1 is the closest to Earths surface and 4 is furthest. 4. Glue the paper circles provided onto the plates to represent the air particles in each layer. Plate 1 will have the most circles and plate 4 will have the least, why? *When your table is called stop what you are doing and head to the back table for the air pressure demonstration!

2. Atmosphere Layers
Earths atmosphere is made up of 4 layers. a. ____________________ layer closest to Earth. This is where almost all weather occurs. b. ____________________ Second layer of Earths atmosphere. This layer contains the Earths ozone, a kind of oxygen that protects living things from the suns harmful rays. Jet planes often fly at the bottom of this layer to avoid the hazardous weather in the troposphere. c. ____________________ Third layer of Earths atmosphere. This is the coldest layer. Meteors or rock fragments break up here. d. ____________________ Fourth, outermost layer of the atmosphere. This is the warmest layer. This layer contains auroras. It is also where the space shuttle orbits.

Directions: Cut the names of the layers and the pictures out. Place in appropriate place on the next page according to the descriptions.

Troposphere

Stratosphere

Mesosphere

Thermosphere

Atmospheric Layers

EARTH