what is the cryosphere?
86480
The permanently frozen part of the earth's surface is called the Cryosphere.
419265
Outerspace begins when the thermosphere ends. There is no definite beginning to outer space, the atmosphere just blends into outer space about 550km above the Earth.\n\nHope this helps
51399
The earth's atmosphere does not abrubtly stop.  It gradually gets thinner and thinner.  For example, satellites in low earth orbits -- arguably in "space" -- experience much more drag than satellites in higher, geosynchronous orbits.  So, you just have to define a distance as the edge of the sky and the beginning of space.  Here is a commonly accepted definition; read the rest of the article by following the link:\n\n"The Kármán line is an internationally designated altitude commonly used to define outer space. According to definitions by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the Karman or Kármán line lies at a height of 100 km (about 62 miles) above Earth's surface (ie. in technical terms 100 km above mean sea level). It was named after Theodore von Kármán.\n\nAround this altitude the Earth's atmosphere becomes negligible for aeronautic purposes, and there is an abrupt increase in atmospheric temperature and interaction with solar radiation...."
899108
The atmosphere would freeze out on the dark side of the planet. \n\nEven rotating once a year, the greenhouse effect would not be enough to prevent this. Even in Antarctica it can get cold enough for CO2 ice to form during its long dark night. As the CO2 is sucked out of the atmosphere it gets much colder quite quickly. The oceans on the day side would join the frozen air air since as the air pressure dropped, they would evaporate too and the water vapor would meet the same fate. The first cycle would probably take many years to occur due to residual heat in the crust and the amout of time it will take to freeze out most of the CO2 to get the ball rolling quickly.\n\n\nBits of the frozen atmosphere would thaw as it came into sunlight but diffusion would eventually carry anything that thawed to the cold side where it would precipitate out and stick.  I suppose in equilibrium there would be some sort of VERY thin atmosphere, but not much.  I could not tell you how slowly the Earth has to rotate for this to occur. Without ozone, mcuh of the water that evaporates will be photolyzed quite quickly and the hydrogen will mostly escape to space. So the water ice will be lost over time.\n\nSo, you would have a big old mountain of frozen water, nitrogen and oxygen, with less and less water each year on the dark side, and nitrogen/oxygen snows not far from the dayside terminator. \n\nThings are much more stable if the earth is tidally locked to the sun. All the stuff falls on the night side and just stays there.
785888
It all depends on the exact composition of air. Air is a mixture of gasses, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon monoxide and small amounts of various other gasses. Freezing occurs when the gaseous mixture turns from a liquid and then into a solid. Although it may theoretically be possible to solidify Air, it has not actually been reached.
126270
I believe all the layers create a balance to sustain life on the third planet from the sun. The main layer-the troposphere-is half of the atmosphere and closest to the earth. It contains the natural gases for life and makes our weather. Without it, the water cycle would be impossible. The stratosphere's high stability level lets us fly aircraft within it. The ozone layer which controls how much sun touches our tan is in the stratosphere. Most potentially dangerous meteorites burn away in the mesosphere. The space shuttle can only orbit around the world with the thermosphere. That's where auroras are made. The upper limits(what I like to call the "crust" of our atmosphere) is the exosphere. I hope this helped.
827581
The Earth's atmosphere has no definite boundary, slowly becoming thinner and fading into outer space. Three-quarters of the atmosphere's mass is contained within the first 11 km of the planet's surface. This lowest layer is called the troposphere. Further up, the atmosphere is usually divided into the stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. Beyond these, the exosphere thins out into the magnetosphere (where the Earth's magnetic fields interact with the solar wind). An important part of the atmosphere for life on Earth is the ozone layer.\n\nThe atmospheric pressure on the surface of the Earth averages 101.325 kPa, with a scale height of about 6 km. It is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, with trace amounts of other gaseous molecules such as water vapor. The atmosphere protects the Earth's life forms by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, moderating temperature, transporting water vapor, and providing useful gases. The atmosphere is one of the principal components in determining weather and climate.\n\nBecause hydrogen gas is light and based on Earth's mean temperature, achieves escape velocity, unfixed hydrogen leaves the Earth. For this reason, the Earth's environment is oxidizing, with consequences for the chemical nature of life which developed on the planet.\n\nYou could get more information from the link below...
668301
cryogenic freezing takes the object to absolute freezing (i.e. not just cold as in -20°).\n\nAbsolute freezing is -273.15°C (or 0° Kelvin)\n\nAt this temperature atoms completely stop moving and therefore stop aging. Anywhere above this temperature, then atoms still move, even if it is a slight little bit.
765885
I have no idea what you are asking.  Argon is 0.934% of the atmosphere.  Is that what you wanted?
172797
there is ice when it is cold, this is known as being frozen
674251
An ice age is a period of long-term downturn in the temperature of Earth's climate, resulting in an expansion of the continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers ("glaciation"). Glaciologically, ice age is often used to mean a period of ice sheets in the northern and southern hemispheres; by this definition we are still in an ice age (because the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets still exist). More colloquially, when speaking of the last few million years, ice age is used to refer to colder periods with extensive ice sheets over the North American and Eurasian continents: in this sense, the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. This article will use the term ice age in the former, glaciological, sense; and use the term glacial periods for colder periods during ice ages and interglacial for the warmer periods.\n\nMany glacial periods have occurred during the last few million years, initially at 40,000-year frequency but more recently at 100,000-year frequencies. These are the best studied. There have been four major ice ages in the further past.
621370
What is air?  It is a mixture of gases, trapped in the gravity of the Earth, that form an envelope around our planet.  It is a mixture of nitrogen (~78%), oxygen (~21%), and the rest small amounts of carbon dioxide, water vapor, argon, neon, carbon monoxide, and traces of other gases.\n\nIf there were no nuclei present, there would be no matter present, and that is the definition of a vacuum.
1173163
Anyone thinking that hasn't spent any time at my place.\n\nAbsolute Zero is how cold it is when hydrogen atoms stop moving.\n\nAnything colder than that is the area in and around my bed immediately after I ask my wife for sex.
800338
Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. The lowest natural temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2 °C recorded in 1983 at the Russian Vostok Station in Antarctica. However, cryogenic labs have achieved much lower temperatures using artificial means. In 2003, Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists cooled sodium to about 0.45 nanokelvins (–273.149 999 999 55 °C). Moving away from the Earth, the coldest temperature found in nature is the Boomerang Nebula, at about one kelvin, which is cooler than the cosmic microwave background radiation.
920554
That would be a cold (or at least cool), dry mass of air that originated over a large region of land near the north pole.  (Not over an ocean, unless it was the Arctic Ocean, which is covered by ice.)
706890
Ice cores:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology
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Permafrost--\n\n\nIn geology, permafrost or permafrost soil is a thermal condition where ground material stays at or below 0°C for two or more years. The presence of ice is not necessary, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts excess of the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material. Most permafrost is located in high latitudes (e.g. North and South poles), but alpine permafrost exists at high altitudes.\n\nThe extent of permafrost can vary as the climate changes. Today, approximately 20% of the Earth's land mass is covered by permafrost (including discontinuous permafrost) or glacial ice. Overlying permafrost is a the layer of ground called the active layer that seasonally thaws during the summer. Plant life can be supported only within the active layer because growth can occur only in soil that is fully thawed for some part of the year. Thickness of the active layer varies by year and location but is typically 0.6 - 4 m (2 to 12 feet) thick. In areas of continuous permafrost and harsh winters the depth of the permafrost can be very great: 440m (1330 feet) at Barrow, Alaska, (600m (1970 feet) at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, up to 726m (2382 feet) in the Canadian Arctic islands and as much as 1493m (4510 feet) in the northern Lena and Yana River basins in Siberia.