Thread: How is air distributed to the world?

I know windpower is ofcourse one of the factors. What else?
And is it homogenously distributed?

Originally Posted by Thermaltake

I know windpower is ofcourse one of the factors. What else?
And is it homogenously distributed?

Do you mean air in general or specifically oxygen?

The main source of atmospheric oxygen is photosynthesising organisms, primarily plant life. The atmosphere is mixed by the effects of convection. Sunlight warms the atmosphere unevenly due to various factors such as the angle at which the light strikes it (more obliquely at the poles) and reflective cloud cover. Warm air, including oxygen, rises when heated. This causes areas of low atmospheric pressure. Where the heating is less, the atmospheric pressure is comparatively high. Winds move from high pressure to low pressure, attempting to equilibrate the air pressure.

So no, the atmosphere is not homogeneous, however in terms of breathability you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference except when changing altitude.

I know that water vapour diffuses faster than heat within a house. Is this true in the open atmosphere?

Originally Posted by TheBiologista

Originally Posted by Thermaltake

I know windpower is ofcourse one of the factors. What else?
And is it homogenously distributed?

Do you mean air in general or specifically oxygen?

The main source of atmospheric oxygen is photosynthesising organisms, primarily plant life. The atmosphere is mixed by the effects of convection. Sunlight warms the atmosphere unevenly due to various factors such as the angle at which the light strikes it (more obliquely at the poles) and reflective cloud cover. Warm air, including oxygen, rises when heated. This causes areas of low atmospheric pressure. Where the heating is less, the atmospheric pressure is comparatively high. Winds move from high pressure to low pressure, attempting to equilibrate the air pressure.

So no, the atmosphere is not homogeneous, however in terms of breathability you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference except when changing altitude.

It was the air we breath i was after, but its also interesting to hear about pure oxygen in the athmosphere.


Stromatolite makes some too. And it is also produced from water by cyanobacteria, algae and plants during photosynthesis.
Oxygen is also produced industrially for hospital use and special needs from people that need to have it with them 24/7 at home. By fractional distillation of liquefied air, they use zeolites to remove nitrogen, and carbon dioxide from the air, electrolysis of water and other means.

So how about the air? Is it fairly stable contributed throughout the world.

If it were totally even, we wouldn't have much by way of weather. In terms of the mix of gasses, it's pretty much consistent throughout. Depends on what scale you're looking at I guess.