08 Oct Overview of basics of our atmosphere

Air Quality Management

DQ1 Overview of basics of our atmosphere

 

The basic science of our atmosphere should have been covered in your basic science classes, and covered in the readings and viewings for this week and last.

 

Discussions provide a chance to implement knowledge into appropriate context – so let’s create connections from your knowledge base with discussions of the following questions:

 

·      What is the basic vertical structure of our atmosphere?  What defines the differences between these layers? That is, what are the physical and chemical differences between these layers? Do that distribution of molecules change in going from the troposphere to the stratosphere?  Explain why or why not.

 

·      Refresh us on the tropospheric content of our atmosphere and the determining factor for a pollutant.

 

·      What are some of the horizontal connections in air circulations that connect continents across oceans?

 

DQ2 Chemistry of our atmosphere

 

Below are some questions to get you started in discussing the course readings and viewings for this week:

 

Explain why we have an oxidative atmosphere.

 

What are the most important oxidation sources in our atmosphere?  Why are these agents called “detergents”?

 

All chemicals need to be discussed in context of the environment they are in and how much of that chemical there is.  This week you learned about ozone in the troposphere and stratosphere.  Why is ozone formed differently in these two environments and why is one called the “good ozone” and one the “bad ozone”?

 

Write a chemical reaction that occurs in our atmosphere that you read about this week.  Explain the chemical reaction in plain English.  Why should we care about the reaction you wrote? What are the implications in air quality management?

 

You only need to take one of these questions but please make sure to add to the discussion.  That is, make sure you are adding something new to what has already been posted – either as a question, a gentle correction, more information or greater clarity of concepts.

 

DQ3 Importance of numbers and plots as the basis for decision making

 

Often people have a difficult time understanding how tiny changes in our atmosphere can have huge effects.  For example, the concept of something much less than 0.001% affecting air quality baffles the average person. 

 

(a) Each student should provide at least one example to help each other understand the importance of tiny concentrations of pollutants in our atmosphere.

 

(b) Speaking of concentrations, how do you convert each of the following numbers:

 

How many ppm is 0.00001%?

 

How many ppb in a ppm?

 

If analysis in a 4.0 L air sample taken at 20 C and 1.0 atm found 3.0 micrograms of NO2, how many ppm of NO2 is in that air sample?

 

What if we found 3.0 micrograms of SO2 in that same sample. How many ppm of SO2 is in that air sample?

 

Please make sure to show your work, including all units.

 

(c) In one of the power point presentations provided to you this week, we examined a graphics on U.S. energy use in 2014. 

 

From this graph, please extract the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from each of five different sectors and convert them to percentage.  Once this has been accomplished, the next student should make a plot showing how much CO2 is emitted from each of these five different sectors of our economy.  What type of plot would best illustrate the relative contributions from these different energy sectors?

 

(d) Find data on U.S. energy use for coal and solar as a function of years.  Provide the data and then let’s plot it together as a class.

 

(e) This week, you are to plot NAAQS data from the census bureau.  Do you have any questions about how to plot? Can you see how similar it is to what we are doing in the previous exercise under this topic?