Earth, atmosphere interface

Clements, W. E., and Wilkening, M. El. (1974). Atmospheric Pressure Effects on222Rn Transport Across the Earth-Air Interface. Journal of Geophysical Research, 79(33), 5025-5029. 

The diffusion barrier. Much attention has been directed toward primitive amphiphile vesicles, inasmuch as they self-assemble from simple components and have an obvious ancestral connection with the more complex membranes that enclose modem cells. A review has been provided by Monnard and Deamer.55 The papers by Segre et al. and Hanczyc et al. contain additional discussion.56 57 Other prominent alternatives that would limit loss by diffusion have been electrostatic forces at mineral surfaces,58 iron sulfide membranes,59 and aerosols at the ocean-atmosphere interface.60 Section 2.7.1 discusses the function of compartmentalization in Earth life today. 

Clements W. E. and Wilkening M. H. (1974) Atmospheric pressure effects on Rn transport across the earth-air interface. /. Geophys. Res. 79, 5025-5029. 

Computer simulations were also used to show that the crystallization nucleus is more likely to form in the subsurface than in the bulk phase of the water slab. This result can have far reaching atmospheric implications. It has been suggested that formation of an ice nucleus at the interface would be hampered by contamination of the surface by organic surfactants. The effect of the adsorbed material will surely propagate towards the subsurface as well, however it will be smaller than in the topmost layer. Therefore, the anthropogenic emissions should have an effect on the radiative balance of the Earth atmosphere. This effect should, however, be smaller than predicted using the assumption of surface nucleation. 

Atmospheric corrosion results from a metal s ambient-temperature reaction, with the earth s atmosphere as the corrosive environment. Atmospheric corrosion is electrochemical in nature, but differs from corrosion in aqueous solutions in that the electrochemical reactions occur under very thin layers of electrolyte on the metal surface. This influences the amount of oxygen present on the metal surface, since diffusion of oxygen from the atmosphere/electrolyte solution interface to the solution/metal interface is rapid. Atmospheric corrosion rates of metals are strongly influenced by moisture, temperature and presence of contaminants (e.g., NaCl, SO2,. ..). Hence, significantly different resistances to atmospheric corrosion are observed depending on the geographical location, whether mral, urban or marine. 

Other factors to account for topography with regard to valley or hillside sites should include possible inversion and failure to disperse pollutants. Temperature inversion occurs when the temperature at a certain layer of the atmosphere stays constant, or even increases with height, as opposed to decreasing with height, which is the norm for the lower atmosphere. Inversions may occur on still, clear nights when the earth and adjacent air cools more rapidly than the free atmosphere. They may also occur when a layer of high turbulence causes rapid vertical convection so that the top of the turbulent layer may be cooler than the next layer above it at the interface. 

One of the most important functions of the pedosphere is the cycling of elements that occurs within soils and the transfers that occur between the atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere through soils. Soil is an interface between the atmosphere and lithosphere, between the biosphere and lithosphere, and between roots and soil organisms and the atmosphere. In many ways, soil acts as a membrane" covering the continents and regulating the flow of elements between these other systems of the Earth. 

The soil may represent a thin film on the surface of the Earth, but the importance of soils in global biogeochemical cycles arises from their role as the interface between the Earth, its atmosphere, and the biosphere. All terrestrial biological activity is founded upon soil productivity, and the weathering of rocks that helps to maintain atmospheric equilibrium occurs within soils. Soils provide the foundation for key aspects of global biogeochemical cycles. 

The pedosphere is defined as the loose surface of the earth and the interface among the lithosphere, biosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere (Merritts et al., 1997 Han et al., 2002a). Banin and Navrot (1975) found a similar pattern of the distribution of elements as indicated by ionic potentials... 

The conclusions of Hurt s study of year-by-year oxygen isotope ratios in 72 years of S. gigantea are thus supportive of the conclusions of the CIAP study [49] that solar variations influence the abundances of many kinds of chemical species in the stratosphere, and therefore influence the.amount of solar energy they absorb and re-radiate to earth, and therefore influence the surface temperature of the earth and especially the surface temperatures of the oceans. It is the surface temperature of the oceans which produces the phenomena we have discussed the isotope ratio variations in rain and hence in tree rings, the isotope ratio variations in the Greenland ice cap, in the organic carbon and uranium concentrations in sea cores, and furthermore variations of the sea surface temperature produces variations in the carbon-14 to carbon-12 ratio fractionation at the sea air interface and hence in the carbon-14 content of atmospheric carbon dioxide and hence in the carbon-14 content of tree rings. 

Figure 7.1. View of Earth from Apollo 17 showing the African continent, the Southern Ocean and portions of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, Antarctica, and extensive cloud cover. It emphasizes interfaces between continents and oceans (solid-liquid), continents and atmosphere (solids and gases), and oceans and atmosphere (liquids and gases). From NASA (http //visibleearth.nasa.gov/view-rec.php id = 12907).

The size of the interface between atmosphere and hydrosphere is immense (see Appendix E) 71% of the earth s surface (361 x 106 km2) is covered by water. In addition, the atmosphere contains about 13 x 1015 kg of water vapor. Expressed as liquid volume, this amounts to 13 x 1012 m3 or 2.5 cm per m2 of earth surface. This is a small volume compared to the total ocean volume of 1.37 x 1018 m3, but it is important in terms of the additional interfacial area between water and air. Although most of the water in the atmosphere is present as water vapor, roughly 50% of the earth s surface is covered by clouds which contain between 0.1 and 1 g of liquid water per cubic meter of air. The water is present in droplets with a typical diameter of 20 pm. Thus, clouds supply an air-water interface area of the order of 0.1 m2 per cubic meter of air (Seinfeld, 1986). For a cloud cover 500 m thick this would yield an air-water contact zone of 50 m2 per m2 of earth surface. 

Radium may be transported in the atmosphere in association with particulate matter. It exists primarily as a divalent ion in water, and its concentration is usually controlled by adsorption-desorption mechanisms at solid-liquid interfaces and by the solubility of radium-containing minerals. Radium does not degrade in water other than by radioactive decay at rates that are specific to each isotope. Radium may be readily adsorbed by earth materials consequently, it is usually not a mobile constituent in the environment. It may be bioconcentrated and bioaccumulated by plants and animals, and it is transferred in food chains from lower trophic levels to humans. 

Nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (N2O), dinitrogen (N2), and ammonia (NH3) are constituents of the Earth s atmosphere. They play important roles in the chemistry and climate of the present-day Earth. Moreover, they are intermediates of the oceanic nitrogen cycle. In contrast to most of the other components of the oceanic nitrogen cycle, they exist as dissolved gaseous molecules. Being gases they can be transferred across the seasurface-troposphere interface. 

Circulation in the near-surface ocean is driven by fiiction of wind on the atmosphere-ocean interface, whereas in deeper waters it is mostly density-driven. Unequal heating of the Earth s surface creates... 

The snowpack forms an interface between the atmosphere and the ground or sea ice that affects the energy balance of the Earth s surfaceand the exchange of chemical species between the surface and the atmosphere. Studies of snow areal extent (e.g. ref. 4) show that during the boreal winter snow covers about 14% of the Earth s surface, therefore affecting the surface energy balance at near-planetary scales, while its overall effect on tropospheric chemistry still needs to be assessed. 

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