On Earth day 2021 will be officially announced XPRIZE Carbon Removal sponsored by Elon Musk. Now there is a carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere 412 ppm. It would be good to know how much is actually 1 ppm of carbon dioxide in the whole atmosphere.
The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15×1018 kg. The average molecular weight of dry air, which can be used to calculate densities or to convert between mole fraction and mass fraction, is about 28.946 or 28.96 g/mol. Let’s take the first value of 28.946 g/mol or 0.028946 kg/mol. The whole atmosphere has then 5.15×1018 / 0.028946 = 1.77917×1020 mol. One part per million is then 1.77917×1014 mol. The weight of such amount of the carbon dioxide is then 1.77917×1014 * 0.044009 = 7.82997×1012 kg (or 7.82997×109 ton or 7.82997 gigaton).
The current concentration of CO2 is about 412 ppm by volume, having risen from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm. Increase is 132 ppm. It represents 132 * 7.82997 = 1,033.55 giga ton, about 1 tera ton.
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