atmosphere: Media

gaseous envelope

Videos

What is Earth's atmosphere composed of?
Earth's atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour, carbon dioxide,...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Learn about the water cycle and how oceans act as the Earth's water reservoirs
The water cycle begins and ends in the ocean.
Video: Created and produced by QA International. © QA International, 2010. All rights reserved. www.qa-international.com
Understand the carbon and oxygen cycles in the atmosphere
Living organisms influence the cycling of carbon and oxygen through the environment.
Video: Created and produced by QA International. © QA International, 2010. All rights reserved. www.qa-international.com
Discover how some elements escape the Earth's atmosphere and how some charged particles are stopped by the Earth's magnetic field
The process by which some elements are able to escape from Earth's atmosphere into...
Video: © MinuteEarth (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
clouds
How much does a cloud weigh?
Video: © American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn how the Sun warms moist air near the ground and causes it to rise and condense on dust particles
Dust and other aerosols suspended in the atmosphere provide the surfaces upon which...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
What is cloud seeding and can it be used to fight climate change?
Cloud seeding can produce an extra 5 to 15 percent of precipitation over the course...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
What's the problem with an early spring?
Is it just me, or did spring come early this year?
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Learn what makes the sky look blue
Learn why the sky is blue.
Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
How greenhouse gases affect Earth's climate
An overview of the role greenhouse gases play in modifying Earth's climate.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

feathery cirrus clouds over Pinawa Dam Provincial Park
The atmospheres of planets in the solar system are composed of various gases, particulates,...
© Kushnirov Avraham/Dreamstime.com
Earth's environmental spheres
Earth's environment includes the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, and...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Earth's axis and sunlight
The primary cause of Earth's seasons is the change in the amount of sunlight reaching...
© Merriam-Webster Inc.
rising air in an unstable atmosphere
When the surface is substantially warmer than the overlying air, mixing will spontaneously...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
rising air in a stable atmosphere
A rising parcel of air cools faster than the environment that surrounds it, causing...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
hydrologic cycle
This diagram shows how, in the hydrologic cycle, water is transferred between the...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
nitrogen cycle
The nitrogen cycle transforms diatomic nitrogen gas into ammonium, nitrate, and nitrite...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Mount St. Helens volcano
Mount St. Helens volcano, viewed from the south during its eruption on May 18, 1980.
© Getty Images
carbon cycle
Carbon is transported in various forms through the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
atmosphere: vertical structure
The layers of Earth's atmosphere, showing heights of characteristic atmospheric phenomena.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
layers of Earth's atmosphere
The layers of Earth's atmosphere, with a yellow line showing the air temperature...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
cloud formation
Cloud formation at various heights.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
cirrus fibratus clouds
Cirrus fibratus are high clouds that are nearly straight or irregularly curved. They...
Nick Impenna/Photo Researchers
altocumulus radiatus clouds
Altocumulus radiatus, a cloud layer with laminae arranged in parallel bands.
Lawrence Smith/Photo Researchers
cumulus humilis clouds
Cumulus humilis, flattened clouds characterized by only a small vertical extent....
© Nicholas A. Tonelli (CC BY 2.0)
Van Allen radiation belts
The Van Allen radiation belts contained within Earth's magnetosphere. Pressure from...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
sand dunes
The Erg Admer, a large area of sand dunes in southern Algeria, is located within...
© Patrick Gruban
Coriolis force
As seen from a fixed point in space, a parcel of air would be moving in a straight...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
sunlight
Rays of sunlight shining through clouds.
© happystock/Fotolia
weather balloon
A weather balloon being released at a weather station at the South Pole.
NOAA
clouds above Venus
Bands of dense clouds swirl around Venus, shown in a photograph taken by the Mariner...
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Jupiter's Great Red Spot
Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings, photographed by Voyager 1, February...
Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech (NASA photo # PIA00014)
false-colour mosaic of the Great Red Spot
False-colour mosaic of two of the long-lived white ovals south of the Great Red Spot,...
Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech (NASA photo # PIA00857)
Earth's atmosphere
Earth's atmosphere as seen from the International Space Station. The dividing line...
NASA
false-colour mosaic of Jupiter's northern hemisphere
False-colour mosaic of a part of Jupiter's northern hemisphere, made from images...
Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech (NASA photo # PIA00895)
Saturn: atmosphere of Titan
View of Titan's upper atmosphere from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft.
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Uranus and its rings
False-colour image of Uranus and its rings, based on observations made by the Hubble...
STScI/NASA/JPL
Giant vortices in Jupiter's southern hemisphere, imaged by the Galileo spacecraft...
Photo NASA/JPL/Caltech (NASA photo # PIA01230)
Figure 3: Average molecular mass of the atmosphere in atomic units (one atomic unit...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Figure 17: Changes in the global mean temperature expected due to past and anticipated...
From Atmospheric Ozone 1985, World Meteorological Organization, Report No. 16, (1986), by courtesy of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Keeling Curve
The Keeling Curve, named after American climate scientist Charles David Keeling,...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Meridional cross section of the atmosphere to a height of 60 km (37 miles) in Earth's...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
abundance of oxygen
A “best guess” reconstruction of the abundance of O2 in Earth's atmosphere...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Figure 1: A schematic representation of the biogeochemical cycle of carbon.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Figure 5: Energy budget for the surface of the Earth illustrating what happens, on...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
atmosphere
In Earth's atmosphere, the limits of the atmospheric layers are approximate and variable,...
© Merriam-Webster Inc.