With reference to water vapour, which of the following statements is/are correct?It is a gas, the am

Question

With reference to water vapour, which of the following statements is/are correct?It is a gas, the amount of which decreases with altitude.Its percentage is maximum at the poles.Select the answer using the code given below:

Accepted Answer

Water vapour is a variable gas in the atmosphere, which decreases with altitude. In the warm and wet tropics, it may account for four percent of the air by volume, while in the dry and cold areas of desert and polar regions, it may be less than one percent of the air. Hence, statement 1 is correct and statement 2 is not correct.Water vapour also decreases from the equator towards the poles. It absorbs parts of the insolation from the sun and preserves the earth’s radiated heat, acting like a blanket that prevents the earth from becoming too cold or too hot.Water vapour contributes to the stability and instability in the air.Source: NCERT: Class XI Fundamentals of Physical Geography