Atmosphere Contents

2. Solar Energy

The amount of energy in light of wavelength 550 nm is of a similar order to the energy barrier which has to be overcome in order to make some reactions occur

Download video: MP4 format | Ogg format | WebM format

Radiation in the visible and particularly the near part of the Infrared range is in principle capable of pumping sufficient energy into molecules to activate them for chemical reactions, since the energy barriers to be overcome between reactants and products are of this order of magnitude. And, in fact, this is the main source of chemical reactivity in the atmosphere at large.

What is the main source of chemical reactivity in the atmosphere?