Atmospheric perspective

“ Then, going away from the earth, we could interrogate the planetary atmospheres, and seek in them the vapor of water, and with it one of the first conditions of the development of terrestrial life. We could also, comparing the composition of the planetary atmospheres with the astronomical facts which permit us to judge of the geological conditions of the surfaces of the planets, follow in them the atmospheric evolutions which on the earth belong to the domain of the past or of the future. ”

“ The absence of an atmospheric covering allows the heat from the sun to [5] escape almost as rapidly as it is received; and the long nights of the moon (each as long as fourteen of our days) during which the sun’s rays are entirely cut off, permit the temperature of the dark side to fall to something like -400° F.
How Atmospheres Are Maintained and How Lost. The processes of nature are always adding to the various gases of the atmosphere in some ways, and transforming or taking from them in other ways. ”

“ The Earth’s attraction, and the resistance of atmospheric currents ever varying in direction and intensity, give as their resultants, lines which incline to the horizon in countless different degrees and undergo perpetual variations. ”

“ Suppose the globe closely shrouded by an oppressive fog; and then imagine the condition of plants, animals, and man. Yet, did it please our great Creator, it is in his power to call into existence plants and animals fitted for so moist and obscure an atmosphere.
Again, the atmospheric temperature, the varying degrees of heat and cold, according to latitude and to the characters of land—that is, its elevation, its depression, the nature of its surface, and the arrangement of adjacent seas, etc., are in harmony with the development of life, and the due exercise of animal functions. ”

“ Within the atmospheric belt from time to time, due to the heat and cold and other disturbances, moisture is formed so that now and then rain falls upon the surface of the growing ball, filling the lower levels and cavities and thereby making the lakes, rivers, and oceans. From time to time these waters spill over other territories of the planet by its tilting one way or another. ”

“ It thus happens that layers of cloud accumulate in the atmosphere, while between them and the surface there is a stratum of clear air. Fogs and mists are in the present state of nature exceptional appearances, depending generally on local causes, and showing what the world might be but for that balancing of temperature and the elastic force of vapor which constitutes the atmospheric firmament. ”

“ And thus the wonderful march of the most powerful steam-engine with which we are acquainted, the atmosphere, appears to be permanently regulated. The irregular distribution of physical qualities over the earth's surface is here seen to be a preserving principle for terrestrial life. ”

“ The consideration of the weather enables him to understand the state of the atmosphere about him, its effect on climate, the cause of storms, and the different action of solar energy on air, land, and water, which renders possible life upon the earth. ”

“ But of all recognized branches of science, that which treats of the atmosphere—meteorology—is at the present time certainly the most backward. The reasons are not far to seek. The air is invisible, and in its upper regions inaccessible. ”

“ Our atmosphere, charged with aqueous vapour, serves to shield us from the intense action of the solar powers. By it we are protected from the destructive influences of the sun’s light and heat; enjoy those modified conditions which are most conducive to the healthful being of organic forms; to it we owe “the blue sky bending over all,” and those beauties of morning and evening twilight of which
—— Sound and motion own the potent sway. ”

“ Then comes the Air which is another Liquid compos'd of Parts much more subtle, and more agitated than those of the Water, which also makes it go before it, and form a sort of Down round the terrestrial Globe, which composes our Atmosphere, and extends about 2 Leagues distance round the Surface of the Earth; and 'tis in this Atmosphere, by the Way, in which are form'd Rain, Snow, Lightning, Thunder, and all the Meteors in general. ”

“ Of the heat that comes to us from the sun, it is estimated that more than one-third is reflected by clouds and the earth, or scattered by dust and air molecules, and thus passes back into space without having had any effect in heating the atmosphere. ”

“ Here, in summer, the air of the atmosphere is uniformly clear and cloudless; and the emanations from the earth’s surface, meeting neither clouds nor mists to impede their ascent, mingle with the other atmospherical ingredients, and diffuse themselves freely through the regions of space. ”

“ To mortals, at this altitude, the atmosphere would be too rarefied and too cold to be endurable, but, as you perceive, Spirits sufficiently evolved, are not subject to physical conditions. How deep is Earth's atmosphere? ”

“ A thin layer of air surrounds the Earth that we denominate the atmosphere as a whole, which protects us from the Sun’s UV radiation and from particles such as cosmic rays, and it also provides us oxygen to breathe. ”

“ Heat rarifies atmosphere as we here realize by the influence of the sun. If the addition of a few rays of the sun will dissipate the dense clouds, and so materially rarify our atmosphere at the distance of ninety-five millions of miles, what may we suppose the condition of the atmosphere ninety millions of miles nearer its source? ”

“ We actually know, then, beyond conjecture, by a comparison of the sun's atmosphere, where it is thickest and where it is thinnest, that an apparently colorless atmosphere can have such an effect, and analogous observations which I have carried on for many years, but do not now detail, show that the atmosphere of our own planet, this seemingly clear air in which we exist like creatures at the bottom of the sea, does do so. ”

“ I like to think of the philosophic and speculative atmosphere as no mere gas-zone of forty-five miles' depth, as of old, but as an envelope of intense kinetic life, in the denser zone, where the logical molecules touch one another with marvelous frequency, and where there is frictional contact with the solid but rather inert lithosphere. ”

“ Not over the top, or upon the top, of the whole mass of atmosphere situated in the opposite hemisphere—out of reach of all influences from the earth—but through it, and curving gradually down near to, and within influential distance of the surface of the earth, soon after it passes the outward limit of its fellow trade ”

“ This points to a chief acting force on which the great movements of the atmosphere depend, viz., simultaneous local irregularities in the distribution of temperature in the atmosphere. The local expansion of the atmosphere by heat during the day is greatest over land, where the air is clear, dry, and comparatively calm, and least over the ocean, where the sky is clouded, and the air loaded with moisture. ”

“ The only important extra-terrestrial factor of climate is the amount of radiant energy which reaches the borders of the earth’s atmosphere from the heavenly bodies—that is, from the sun, for the moon and stars can be ignored in this connexion. ”

“ There is another, and perhaps more powerful cause, I suspect, which may occasion the great cold on mountains, and in the higher parts of the atmosphere, and which has not yet been attended to; I mean that the fluid matter of heat may probably gravitate round the earth, and form an atmosphere on its surface, mixed with the aerial atmosphere, which may diminish or become rarer, as it recedes from the earth's surface, in a greater proportion than the air diminishes. ”

“ Besides in such situations, you are more exposed, both to heat, and cold; for though the atmosphere is itself transparent, its lower regions, abound with vapours, and exhalations, from the earth, which float in it, and act in some degree as a covering, which preserves us equally from the intensity of the sun's rays, and from the severity of the cold. ”

“ This objection has no weight, because the Earth controls not only all the objects fixed to the soil, but also the atmosphere, and the clouds that surround it like a light veil, and all that exists upon its surface. The atmosphere, the clouds, the waters of the ocean, things and beings, all are adherent to it and make one body with it, participating in its movement, as sometimes happens to ourselves in the compartment of a train, or the car of an aerostat. ”

“ At night we are still enjoying the benefit of the sun's rays—that is, of those which are retained by our atmosphere; for if none remained even the very air itself would freeze, and by the next morning not one inhabitant would be left alive to tell the awful tale. Yet all this life and growth and heat we receive on the whole earth is but one part in two thousand two hundred millions of parts that go out in all directions into space. ”

“ The atmosphere in motion is wind, with which the sailor has so much to do, and it behooves him to understand, not only the causes which produce it, but the laws which control it. “Whence cometh the wind, and whither goeth it?” It comes from heat, and as the sun is the father of heat, he is the father of the winds. Let us suppose the earth, and atmosphere both to be created, but not yet the sun. The atmosphere, being of equal temperature throughout the earth, would be in equilibrium. It could not move in any direction, and there would not be the slightest breeze to fan the brow. ”

“ The atmosphere is, then, an integral portion of the earth, a body of air revolving with the solid mass upon its axis, the higher strata, of course, increasing in velocity with the distance from the axis of revolution. ”

“ Now, the atmosphere that encircles our globe is but an ocean of less density than the watery element that surges upon its surface; like that, it moves, contracts, and expands according to well-known physical laws, and these laws constitute the rules whereby the person at the central station operates on his known quantities, solves the equation, and obtains for a result the forecast of the weather for the next few hours. ”

“ But in the night, the atmosphere grows cool, while the earth, retaining a superior degree of heat, continues to throw off the particles of water. These particles, meeting the colder atmosphere, are condensed, and lodge upon the surface of the earth, grass, trees and other objects. ”

“ The researches of physicists have made it probable, if they have not altogether demonstrated, that the composition of the atmosphere has much to do with the climatic conditions at the surface of the earth. ”

“ The atmosphere is a great basin which envelops this globe, and every plant and animal that grows thereon is dependent for its well being upon the laws which govern and control the 'wind in its circuits,' and none more so than man, the lord of all. To study these laws, we must treat the atmosphere as a whole. We have now the sea made white with floating observatories all equipped with instruments that are comparable, observing the same things according to a uniform method, and recording these observations according to a universal plan. ”

“ There is a constant ratio between the quantity that runs down and the quantity that is carried back. Were evaporation to cease, or the atmosphere to stand still—were the winds never to blow, our rivers would become dry, and the earth itself unfit for man's use. What a circulator, purifier, cooler, and condenser! In every point of view this atmosphere is a grand machine—perfect in all its parts, wonderful in its offices, sublime in its operations. ”

“ The motion of the atmosphere is brought about by the action of heat here and there, and in a trifling way, by the heat from the interior of the earth escaping through hot springs or volcanoes, but almost altogether by the heat of the sun. If we can imagine the earth cut off from the solar radiation, the air would cease to move. We often note how the variable winds fall away in the nighttime. ”

“ Yes: all the clouds are within the atmosphere, for they are supported by the air. Well—this atmosphere rolls about along with the earth, as if it were a part of it, and moves with it through the sky, which is a vast field of empty space. In this immense space are all the stars and planets, which have also their several motions. There is nothing to stop them, and therefore they continually go on, by means of the force that the Creator has originally impressed upon them. ”

“ The whole atmosphere must have increased in quantity, because it appears by the barometer that there exists one-fifteenth part more air over us for many weeks together, which could not be thus accumulated by difference of temperature in respect to heat, or by any aerostatic laws at present known, or by any lunar influence. ”

“ But the air thus warmed by the earth is in continual motion owing to changes of density. It rises up and flows off, owing to the greater weight of the cooler air which forces it up and takes its place; and thus heat can never accumulate in the atmosphere beyond a very moderate degree, the excessive sun-heat of the tropics being much of it carried away to the upper atmosphere and radiated into space. ”

“ If now there were no atmosphere—or, to state it differently—if there were no floating substances in the atmosphere, the sun would produce an effect upon the earth similar to that of a single electric light. ”

“ Your theory that even in seemingly calm weather, when there is no noticeable agitation of the atmosphere, there may be a vertical column of rising air induced by imperceptible movements of the lower atmosphere, may be the explanation. ”

“ Fig. 28 shows a part of the earth surrounded by such a dust-laden atmosphere, which is illuminated on the left by the rays of the sun, but which, on the right of the figure, lies in the shadow cast by the earth. To an observer placed at 1 the sun is just setting, and all the atmosphere above him is illumined with its rays, which furnish a bright twilight. ”