Knowra Atmospheric chemistry Atmospheric chemistry Atmospheric chemistry studies the composition of the atmosphere and the reactions that transform its gases and particles. It explains how natural processes and human emissions alter air quality, climate, and ozone.
Photochemistry : Chemical reactions initiated by the absorption of light. Sunlight drives many atmospheric reactions, including ozone formation and pollutant breakdown.
Air pollution : Contamination of the atmosphere by substances that harm health, ecosystems, or materials. Atmospheric chemistry explains how emissions become harmful pollutants and how they disperse or disappear.
Atmospheric composition : The proportions and distributions of gases, particles, and other substances in Earth's atmosphere. Chemical reactions are understood against the atmosphere's dominant gases and trace constituents.
Arie Jan Haagen-Smit : A Dutch-born chemist whose experiments identified sunlight-driven reactions as the source of Los Angeles smog. His chamber studies connected urban emissions and sunlight to photochemical air pollution.
Atmospheric chemistry-climate feedbacks : Interactions in which atmospheric chemical changes affect climate and climate changes alter atmospheric chemistry. Warming can alter reaction rates, circulation, and emissions, while chemical changes affect radiative forcing.
Atmospheric oxidation : Chemical processes that oxidize gases in the atmosphere, often through reactions with radicals. Oxidation converts many emitted gases into products that affect particles, clouds, and air quality.
Photochemical smog : Air pollution formed when sunlight drives reactions among nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. It is a well-studied outcome of urban emissions interacting with sunlight.
Trace gas : A gas present in the atmosphere at a small concentration relative to its major constituents. Many chemically influential atmospheric substances occur only at trace concentrations.
Dobson spectrophotometer : An instrument developed by Gordon Dobson to measure total-column atmospheric ozone from the ground. Ozone measurements made it possible to detect and track changes in the stratospheric ozone layer.
Secondary organic aerosol : Organic aerosol formed in the atmosphere from the oxidation of volatile organic compounds. Its sources, composition, and formation yields remain difficult to predict across environments.
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