Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Tides
manifestations such as auroral displays occur there.
The atmosphere extends from the Earth’s surface outward,
becoming less dense. The Sun, too, has what we call
an atmosphere, streaming out into space far beyond the orbit
of the Earth, well into the outer reaches of the solar system.
This solar wind flows around the Earth’s magnetic
field, creating an elongated cavity within which the Earth’s
atmosphere is confined. The outer limit of the solar wind
has been estimated to be one light year, which is the distance
you would reach if you travelled at the speed of
light(186,000 miles per second, or 7 times around the earth
in one second). As light from the Sun reaches us in 8 minutes,
and thus we sit at only 8 minutes of a light year in
distance away, the solar wind definitely has an efect on our
environment.
The dependence of life upon the atmosphere is not a
one-sided relation, for an atmosphere of some sort on primeval
Earth not only allowed life to originate and develop
but was itself modified, perhaps considerably, by living
things. The free oxygen in the atmosphere, for example,
would not exist without plant photosynthesis.
Humans really live between the sea of air and the sea
of water, and these two seas are interrelated. Their reaction
with each other is one of the important factors in
weather. Weather is simply the state of the atmosphere: Is
the air cool or hot? dry or moist? still or in motion (windy)?
clear or cloudy?
From space, the atmosphere looks very thin. If the
Earth was a round party balloon, the atmosphere would be
only as thick as the rubber enclosing the air. If the earth
81