Word: vapor
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Tons of CO2. The temperature of the earth's surface depends largely on two minor constituents of the atmosphere: water vapor and carbon dioxide. They are transparent to the short-wave energy (light and near infrared) that comes from the sun, but opaque to most of the long-wave heat radiation that tries to return to space. This "greenhouse effect" traps heat and makes the earth's surface considerably warmer than it would be if the atmosphere had no water vapor or carbon dioxide in it. An increase in either constituent would make it warmer still. Warm eras...
What is a whale's spout made of? One theory: the spout is condensed vapor from the whale's moist breath. But in the tropics, where breath does not condense, the whale's spout is just as visible as in arctic cold. In Britain's Nature, Dr. F. C. Fraser and P. E. Purves tackle the old controversy again...
Orange "G." As the rocket rose to almost 70 miles, the high-altitude winds distorted the sodium-vapor trail into a gigantic "G" 20 miles across. It remained visible for 15 minutes, until the shadow of the earth reached it, and was seen in Amarillo, Texas, 300 miles away...
...putting a known amount of sodium vapor into the atmosphere at a known altitude, the sodium rocket will enable scientists to learn more about the natural sodium that is already there. They can compare the air glow coming from the two lots of sodium, and since the amount of one is known, the amount of the other may be calculated...
...sodium vapor that the Air Force put into the atmosphere will drift with the winds. If it increases the normal air glow, it can be followed, perhaps for considerable distances. A cloud of sodium of known origin picked up by astronomers' instruments in the Eastern states will be a fine way to measure wind velocity at levels that no weather balloon can reach...