Syllabus
1) Atmospheric composition and its history, natural components, dynamics of the atmosphere, sources and sinks, atmospheric cycles of the selected elements.
2) Most important chemical and photochemical reactions in gas phase, role of solar radiation, importance of radicals, comparison of tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry, catalytic reactions, origin and fate of aerosols.
3) Smog episodes and their cause, tropospheric ozone, classes of pollutants and their reactions, acid rain, self-cleansing processes, chemical interactions with other geospheres.
4) Interaction of solar radiation with the atmosphere, planetary energy balance, radiative forcing, greenhouse effect, global warming, catalytic depletion of ozone in the stratosphere, solving the global issues
Annotation
The main goal of the course is to present the atmosphere as a dynamic medium, coupled with other geospheres through chemical and physical links that play decisive role in mass and energy metabolisms of the planet. We view the chemical composition of the planet as a unique in the context of our knowledge of the Universe and there is no doubt that it was decisive for the appearance of life on our planet.
On the other hand, the early Earth atmosphere was profoundly modified by biospheric processes and it is believed that its composition has not changed too much over the past hundreds of millions years. This relative stability of the Earth atmosphere composition made possible development of the earthly life to more complex forms.
The composition of the atmosphere was preserved through a multitude of natural processes taking place in the troposphere and at the boundary with other geospheres. Besides the explanation of this natural phenomena the due attention will be paid to antropogenic effects influencing the atmosphere on the both regional and global scale.
The aim of this introductory lecture on atmospheric chemistry is to present a wide spectrum of the topics in a balanced way so to enable students to comprehend general chemical aspects of the atmospheric processes and at the same time to offer practically oriented insight into pressing issues connected with the atmospheric pollution and environmental protection.