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The amount of UV radiation produced by the Sun means that the Earth would not be able to sustain life on dry land if most of that light were not filtered out by the atmosphere. [1] More energetic, shorter-wavelength "extreme" UV below 121 nm ionizes air so strongly that it is absorbed before it reaches the ground. [2]
Essentially all UV-C (100–280 nm) is blocked by dioxygen (from 100–200 nm) or else by ozone (200–280 nm) in the atmosphere. The shorter portion of the UV-C band and the more energetic UV above this band causes the formation of the ozone layer, when single oxygen atoms produced by UV photolysis of dioxygen (below 240 nm) react with more ...
The optical atmospheric window is the optical portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that passes through the Earth's atmosphere, excluding its infrared part; [10] although, as mentioned before, the optical spectrum also includes the IR spectrum and thus the optical window could include the infrared window (8 – 14 μm), the latter is ...
Oxygen and ozone continuously interconverted. Solar UV breaks down oxygen; molecular and atomic oxygen combine to form Ozone. 3. Ozone is lost by reaction with atomic oxygen (plus other trace atoms). The ozone–oxygen cycle is the process by which ozone is continually regenerated in Earth's stratosphere, converting ultraviolet radiation (UV ...
It exists primarily due to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. The lowest part of the Earth's atmosphere, the troposphere, extends from the surface to about 10 km (6 mi). Above that is the stratosphere, followed by the mesosphere. In the stratosphere incoming solar radiation creates the ozone layer.
The atmosphere serves as a protective buffer between the Earth's surface and outer space, shields the surface from most meteoroids and ultraviolet solar radiation, keeps it warm and reduces diurnal temperature variation (temperature extremes between day and night) through heat retention (greenhouse effect), redistributes heat and moisture among ...
Extreme UV and X-rays are produced (left of wavelength range) but comprise very small amounts of the Sun's total output power (area under the curve). Although the solar corona is a source of extreme ultraviolet and X-ray radiation, these rays make up only a very small amount of the power output of the Sun (see spectrum at right).
Ozone's effect on mid-range UV-B rays is illustrated by its effect on UV-B at 290 nm, which has a radiation intensity 350 million times as powerful at the top of the atmosphere as at the surface. Nevertheless, enough of UV-B radiation at similar frequency reaches the ground to cause some sunburn, and these same wavelengths are also among those ...