What is the Greek word Atmos means?

a combining form meaning “air,” used in the formation of compound words: atmosphere.

What does the word atmosphere mean?

the gaseous envelope

How far up is Earth’s atmosphere?

Earth’s atmosphere stretches from the surface of the planet up to as far as 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) above.

Where is the thickest ozone layer?

The amount of ozone above a location on the Earth varies naturally with latitude, season, and from day-to-day. Under normal circumstances, the ozone layer is thickest over the poles and thinnest around the equator.

Do planes fly in the ozone layer?

Planes fly in the second layer of the atmosphere called the stratosphere. The stratosphere is the second layer of the atmosphere and the one where the ozone layer is formed and where the planes fly in. The temperatures in the stratosphere are inverse to those in the troposphere, meaning they rise with altitude.

What does ozone smell like?

Ozone (scientifically known as trioxygen due to the fact that it is comprised of three oxygen atoms) is notably pungent and has a very sharp smell that is often described as similar to that of chlorine.

Is ozone safe to breathe?

When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs. Relatively low amounts can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath and throat irritation. Ozone may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and compromise the ability of the body to fight respiratory infections.

Why do I keep smelling ozone?

The scent of ozone heralds stormy weather because a thunderstorm’s downdrafts carry O3 from higher altitudes to nose level. Once the rains arrive, other odors come with them. Falling water disturbs and displaces odoriferous molecules on surfaces, particularly on dry ones, and carry them into the air.

Why can I smell rain coming?

Scientists say it’s a combination of ozone, petrichor and geosmin. Before it rains, a person might say that they can smell the storm coming. This is due to the fact that plant oils accumulate over time, which makes petrichor more pronounced after a dry period.

What smell are humans most sensitive to?

Scents that humans are particularly attuned to include chemical components in bananas, flowers, blood and sometimes pee. In 2013, Laska and colleagues tested the abilities of humans, mice and spider monkeys to detect urine odors found in common mouse predators.

What’s the smell of rain called?

Petrichor

Can you smell lightning?

Even if there’s barely any lightning, there are still trace amounts of lightning-produced ozone and nitrogen dioxide in the air scattered about the storm. When the gust front of a storm carries it out ahead of the rain, you can smell it before it’s “scavenged” to the ground. You may just be smelling lightning.

Can you taste lightning?

When you see lightning, count the seconds until you hear the thunder. Keep doing this every time lightning strikes. Though it may sound strange, you may taste something metallic in your mouth just before a lightning strike.

Does lightning clean the air?

Lightning may play an important role in clearing the air of pollutants. A storm-chasing airplane has shown that lightning can forge large amounts of oxidants. These chemicals cleanse the atmosphere by reacting with pollutants such as methane. Those reactions form molecules that dissolve in water or stick to surfaces.

What do you smell when lightning strikes?

The smell is probably ozone, which typically has a sweet, pungent aroma. In stormy weather, lightning splits atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen molecules. These can then combine into nitric oxide, which, with further reactions, forms ozone.

Can humans sense a storm?

Have you been told you’re a human barometer who can sense changes in barometric pressure? You’re not crazy and you’re not alone. It is possible to feel that storm coming “in your bones” – or in your head. “Barometric pressure is atmospheric pressure, the weight of the atmosphere,” said headache specialist Dr.

Does lightning help the ozone layer?

Ozone is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere (the Ozone layer) through ultraviolet radiation. As well, lightning will produce Ozone through electrical excitation of Oxygen molecules. Ozone Generators use both forms of producing Ozone. Since they require no inputs other than Oxygen, they are very cost-effective.

Is there a smell before a tornado?

You can see in detail the tornado, the wind flow; you can actually hear it. And then actually even the smell of tornadoes—if you’re in the right place, you get a strong odor of fresh-cut grass, or occasionally, if it’s destroyed a house, natural gas.

Can you smell rain coming?

Most of us have probably smelt that lovely fresh, earthy aroma of an approaching rain storm. Now scientists have discovered why people can smell the storms so far away. A sensitive snout is smelling ozone, petrichor and geosmin; in other words, the nose smells oxygen, the debris that raindrops kick up and wet bacteria.

Why does cold air smell so good?

Dalton explains to Discovery News that as a protective response against cold, dry air, the olfactory receptors that lie inside all of our noses bury down in the winter. So the lack of smells plus the lesser ability to smell makes winter have a different odor than summer.

Can humans smell rain better than sharks smell blood?

That means human noses are 200,000X more sensitive to geosmin, which is also the source of the earthy taste in some vegetables, than a shark is to blood.