Questions tagged [atmospheric-chemistry]
Chemical reactions that occur in the atmosphere of Earth and other planets. Relevant reactions include both those that take place only in the gas-phase, in the solid or liquid phases of aerosols or any reactions between the phases as well as the thermodynamics of the phase changes that take place in the atmosphere.
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What do bracketed plus-sign-notations such as (+M) or (+O2) next to reaction participants mean?
What does $(+M)$ means in the following reaction from Chua et al. [1]?
$$\ce{NO2 + OH($+M$) -> HNO3($+M$)} \tag{R11}$$
It looks like $M$ could be a catalyst (maybe metal?), but usually catalysts ...
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What exactly are the stages of the reaction between an oxygen ion and a water molecule?
I found information on the website water.lsbu.ac.uk - Oxygen and water:
Between altitudes of $80-\pu{100 km}$, $\ce{O2^{\small{\bullet}+}}$ and $\ce{NO+}$ ions are the dominant cationic species. $\ce{...
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Why does the ozone layer deplete faster in winter months over the poles?
Why is the depletion of the ozone layer greater in the winter months over polar regions?
Is it because there is more release of $\ce{NO_x}$ due to the increased use of fossil fuels in heating which ...
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How can combusted methane from landfill samples be quantified?
Background:
For my studies I'm wanting and attempting to make a landfill greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) model that predicts the amount of greenhouse gas equivalent emissions ($GHG_\mathrm{eq}$ [tonnes/...
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How does the partial pressure of oxygen relate to its concentration in water?
I've read that the partial pressure of oxygen in water will be the same as the partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere, but that the saturation of oxygen in water is dependent on factors like ...
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Could fluorinated gases be removed from the atmosphere? [closed]
Background
Among all the discussion of 'greenhouse gas removal' (GGR) to aid climate change mitigation, almost all is concerned with removal of carbon dioxide. There are one or two mentions of ...
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Why is oxygen an anomaly in this context?
In A Very Short Introduction: Earth System Science by Tim Lenton, the author discusses the composition of atmosphere:
the first observations from land-based telescopes showed that Mars had an ...
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Why do different places on Earth have different concentrations of particulate matter in the atmosphere? [closed]
From the second law of thermodynamics, I would expect the pollutants to diffuse from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. The rates of diffusion in liquids and solids ...
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On the idea of heavy atmospheric Xenon
I am wondering about the plausibility of an idea for a Si-fi planet, mostly seeing if it would be like I imagine, and what else would be needed for what I want.
I am thinking of a planet with large ...
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Why does the stratosphere have a lot of ozone, but not the Earth's surface?
Ozone ($\ce{O3}$) and dioxygen ($\ce{O2}$) are both allotropes of oxygen. However, nearly 90% of all ozone is found in the stratosphere, whereas near the earth's surface (or overall in the troposphere)...
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Ozone depletion with the OH radical
$\ce{OH*}$ radicals are known to deplete the ozone layer. Fill out the gaps below to complete the propagation stage:
\begin{align}
\ce{? + O3 &-> ? + O2}\\
\ce{? + O3 &-> ? + O2}
\...
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How long would atmospheric oxygen last on Earth if plants stopped making it? [closed]
A few years ago a rather dubious paper appeared in a mathematical biology journal. The gist of it was that warming oceans could stop oceanic plankton making oxygen (according to a somewhat simplistic ...
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How is O3 GHG gas created by human activity causing climate change?
Please help me undestand these.
Greenhouse gases from human activity directly are: $\ce{CO2}$, $\ce{CH4}$, $\ce{NO2}$, $\ce{O3}$, and the $\ce{F}$-gases.
Wikipedia agrees: https://en.wikipedia.org/...
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Could supercritical CO2 or N2 support biogenesis?
At the surface of Venus, at a pressure of 93 bar and a temperature of 737 K, both carbon dioxide and nitrogen are supercritical fluids.
Now, supercritical $\ce{CO2}$ is used as a solvent in processes ...
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What is the reaction steps taken when producing auroral forcing?
As described in here:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/sounding-rocket-mission-will-trace-auroral-winds
A mixture of Trimethylaluminium, Barium and Strontium reacts and ionize in the upper ...
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Effect of short lived chemicals on global warming exceeding effect of carbon dioxide
From Wikipedia: Global Warming Potential
GWP values and lifetimes:
Nitrous oxide lasts about 121 years in the atmosphere, causes about 280 times as much warming over 20 years, but about 300 times as ...
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Are compounds which are used to seed clouds like silver(I) iodide hygroscopic?
I have read a teensy bit of the subject matter and the explanation they provided for silver iodide's ability to being a good site for ice to form is because of its size resembling an ice nucleus.
How ...
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What non-hazardous substance can be used to locally turn sky red?
I am a horror author and I have a scene coming up in my new book where I need a red-colored gas (or a gas that would somehow be turned or viewed red when viewed from the ground) to be spilled into the ...
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How to calculate molar concentration from equilibrium equations with no initial concentration given [duplicate]
Consider the following equations:
\begin{align}
\tag{1}
\ce{CO2 (g) + H2O (l) &<=> H2CO3 (aq)} &
K_\ce{CO2} &= 10^{-1.47}\\
\tag{2}
\ce{H2CO3 (aq) &<=> H+ (aq) + HCO^...
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In reaction equations, why are j and k sometimes capitalized to J and K?
From 'Leighton relationship' on Wikipedia:
through the following mechanism:[2]
($J_1$) $$\ce{NO2 + h\nu (\lambda < 420 nm) → NO + O (^3P)}$$
($k_2$) $$\ce{O (^3P) + O2 + M → O3 + M}$$
($k_3$) $$\ce{...
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Confusion in barometer experiment
Now at A, there is pressure by mercury column which is nothing but it's weight. Then, at C there is pressure which is atmospheric pressure. Also, the density at A is more than at C. What they say ...
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Why doesn't fluorine harm the ozone layer the way chlorine and bromine do? [closed]
I don't understand the chemistry here: fluorine is a halogen too.
I read that fluorine in the atmosphere readily forms HF, which is (somewhat) stable and doesn't catalytically break down ozone.
But, ...
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Carbon Sequestration For Indoor Farming
First the backstory:
We've begun growing mushrooms (currently Enoki, Lion's Mane and Blue Oysters if anyone is curious) for the sake of eating and maybe potentially selling someday soon. My partner ...
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If phosphorus trioxide is present in the atmosphere of Venus, could it not react with water to form (sufficient) phosphorous acid?
Sufficient phosphorous acid to be decomposed in the measured quantity of phosphine ?
From Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus:
We also rule out the formation of phosphorous acid ($\ce{H3PO3}$). ...
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How much 'stronger' is water vapor than carbon dioxide, molecule-per-molecule, over the course of a day, in terms of global warming potential?
I have read, many times, that water molecules are far more effective than CO2 molecules at trapping heat...
But, the 'relative G.W.P.' value of water vapor (or its 'radiative forcing') is not listed ...
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How is methane removed from the atmosphere? [closed]
I am not a chemist, but I've studied anthropology, geology, and history for decades. Obviously, my reason for asking this community is climate change. Specifically the concept of the methane ice on ...
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Ozone layer: why shouldn’t there be holes at the poles? [closed]
Just read "What property allows ozone to absorb uv light" together with excellent answers.
The driver here, i.e. the source of both the short and long wave UV, is of course sunlight. This is notably ...
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Ventilating combustion byproducts in water heaters
I'm designing a system that will heat water by burning natural gas which is commonly available. I would like to have a slow flame because water will need to reach $\mathrm{70^\circ C}$ and stay there. ...
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CO2 IR extinction coefficients near the 15 micrometer band
I have searched multiple times for a spectrum or a table of the gaseous carbon dioxide Lambert-Beer extinction coefficients in the IR Earth thermal region.
All I found was absorption spectra.
Is ...
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Redox and acid-base reactions in planetary atmospheres
I'm a chemistry layperson looking for chemistry expertise regarding atmosphere composition.
Earth's atmosphere is oxidizing, but it was somewhat reducing in the distant past before photosynthetic ...
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Why is carbon monoxide not a greenhouse gas?
Carbon monoxide is considered to be a toxic gas and, given that it is usually found along with $\ce{CO2}$, why it is not considered a greenhouse gas?
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Is the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to methane a solution or a problem?
The hydrogenation of $\ce{CO2}$ to $\ce{CH4}$ is thermodynamically a favored reaction at ambient to moderately high temperatures.
$$\ce{CO2 + 4H2 <=> CH4 + 2H2O (g)}\qquad G^\circ_{\pu{298K}}= \...
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Does a live electrical wire change the surrounding atmospheric chemistry? [closed]
Background: I'm world building an Earth-like world for a writing project. One of the goals of this project is to talk about changes in atmospheric chemistry across multiple scales ('nano'-scale ...
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Calculate ozone layer thickness at a given temperature and pressure [closed]
The ozone concentration in the upper atmosphere averages $\pu{3.0 \times 10^13 molecules per cm3}$ in a region between $15$ and $\pu{35 km}$ high, at an average pressure of $\pu{0.001 atm}$ and ...
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How to convert the factors of radiative forcing of methane compared to carbon dioxide from ratio by weight to ratio by molecule?
The intergovernmental panel on climate change's fifth assessment report (IPCC AR 5) lists the radiative forcing (RF) of methane in chapter 8 as being $28\times$ and $84\times$ as potent as $\ce{CO2}$ ...
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Determining the rate of stratospheric ozone destruction
I am a sophomore. A friend and I ran across a kinetic chemistry exercise. We solved it in a slightly different way and we can't come to an agreement on who is right. We would appreciate some help:
...
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Ozone-Air Paradox [duplicate]
One day, I decided to calculate the density of air, so I searched for the individual densities of the 3 main elements that forms breathable air. I found the following data, at $\pu{0^\circ C}$ and $\...
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What properties of carbon dioxide make it a greenhouse gas?
Why is it that heat from the Earth reflects back off carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases but not gases like nitrogen or oxygen?
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Can't we reduce climate change by converting CO2 and CH4?
Straight off I want to say, I never took chemistry classes, so my understanding is very limited. My question is considering the equations below, why is it so hard to reduce greenhouse gases? Is it ...
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Why does NO have a residence time of 4 days?
If $\ce{NO}$ is unstable, why does it have an atmospheric lifetime of 4 days? I know that it has a lone pair and one unpaired electron making it highly reactive. Therefore, shouldn't it react ...
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Where does the energy of solar radiation hitting the atmosphere go?
I was reading about solar radiation, and there was a part that says that the atmosphere absorbs most of the radiation emitted by the sun. I wonder if when the atmosphere absorbs the energy, where does ...
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Why does nitrous oxide have 300 times the global warming potential of CO2?
Both nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide have roughly the same atmospheric lifetime (nitrous oxide slightly longer), so I thought that it would have to do with the infrared absorbance associated with ...
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(Why) is it difficult to liquidize the polluting exhaust of a vehicle? [closed]
Considering the hazardous effects of car and other vehicle exhaust when released into the atmosphere, I began wondering why we are not dominantly preventing the exhaust from entering into the ...
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What can I use as a fuel for an engine with carbon dioxide as the oxidizer?
On Mars carbon dioxide is abundant. It is plausible to utilize a fuel in an engine that can use carbon dioxide as an oxidizer? I know this is a strange inquiry, but could a engine be made to use $\ce{...
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Equating emissions to mass loading
I want to estimate aerosol mass loading by dividing emissions of the particular aerosol by the associated area. Assuming the air had no other particles in it to begin with - is this procedurally ...
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What is the variation of atmospheric pressure at large heights?
In an approximation (though not a very accurate one), temperature can be assumed constant throughout the atmosphere. The Earth's gravitational field can also be assumed constant (a better assumption).
...
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How do I select a sub-freezing temperature for my experiment that will allow the formation of frost, but not supercooled liquid water (rime)
I once conducted a set of experiments in which I had to form ice by direct vapor deposition (not condensation of liquid water followed by freezing, aka riming) onto a Peltier-cooled glass-coated ...
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What happens to a radioactive carbon dioxide molecule when its carbon-14 atom decays?
When carbon-14 decays, the decay products are nitrogen-14 and an electron (and an electron antineutrino, but that's chemically irrelevant*):
$$\ce{^14_6C -> ^14_7N + e- + \overline{v_e}}$$
Let's ...
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Why is atmospheric composition compared by volume?
The composition of the Earth's atmosphere by its constituent gases (nitrogen, oxygen, argon...), is often given by percent volume. (See this Wikipedia page, for example). Why are these compositions ...
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how to modify a transport device with an internal combustion engine with different atmospheres [closed]
How to modify a transport device with an internal combustion engine with:
the methane-nitrogen atmosphere
carbon dioxide atmosphere
the atmosphere of argon and chlorine.
Which substances will ...