Abstract
IN his presidential address before the Royal Meteorological Society at its annual general meeting on January 17, Prof. S. Chapman discussed “The Gases of the Atmosphere”. The permanent gases of the atmosphere (mainly nitrogen and oxygen) are known, from direct measurements in the stratosphere, to be in constant proportions up to the greatest heights yet attained by Piccard and his successors in stratospheric flight. Other constituents vary in their concentration, because of processes tending to produce and destroy or transfer them in the atmosphere: among such constituents are water, ozone and the newly discovered positrons, which enter the atmosphere from outside as cosmic rays. Experiments were suggested to determine the rate of large-scale transfer of such gases by turbulence, using some easily detectable gas, artificially introduced, as an ‘indicator’. Such experiments might also be made using ozone as the indicator, which would throw light on the distribution of ozone, as recently estimated by Dobson, Götz and Meetham. The possibility of removing the atmospheric ozone above certain ground areas was also considered. The absorption of solar radiation by oxygen and ozone was discussed in the light of new experimental data, and in relation to the composition and temperature of the upper atmosphere.
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The Gases of the Atmosphere. Nature 133, 132 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133132c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133132c0