ABSTRACT

The quality of the air that living organisms breathe, the nature and level of air pollutants, visibility and atmospheric esthetics, and even climate are dependent upon chemical phenomena that occur in the atmosphere. These, in turn are strongly tied to absorption of solar energy, interactions between the gas phase of the atmosphere and small solid particles suspended in it, and interchange of chemical species with the geosphere (see Figure 8.1). Chemical reactions in the atmosphere and the chemical nature of atmospheric chemical species are the topic of atmospheric chemistry, which is introduced in this chapter.