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Earth's climate response to a changing Sun
The Earth’s atmosphere, the thin envelope of air that surrounds our planet, consists of a mixture of gases, extending from the surface of the Earth to the edge of
space and tied to the Earth mainly by its gravitational force, and partly by the magnetic field at high altitude. It comprises mainly molecular nitrogen (78% in mass) and molecular oxygen (21%), with the other 1% composed of trace gases, named so because their concentrations are very small. Despite their small amount, carbon dioxide, ozone and water vapor are very important to the Earth’s climate and can have a large impact on atmospheric processes. Above about 200 km, atomic oxygen, although tenuous, becomes the major species while atomic hydrogen is the most abundant species above typically 1000 km. Depending on the
approach taken, there are various ways one can consider a distinction between atmospheric layers: composition, temperature, electromagnetic properties.
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