Cess

Cess is a tax.

It was the official term used in Ireland when it was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but has been superseded by "rate". The term was formerly particularly applied to local taxation.

In colonial India it was applied, with a qualifying prefix, to any taxation, such as irrigation-cess, educational-cess, and the like. They are collectively referred to as "cesses" in government censuses, e.g. "land revenue and cesses".

In modern India, it refers to a tax earmarked for a particular purpose, such as education.

In Scotland, it refers to the property tax which was enacted in Scotland in 1665 and continued to be levied through the 18th century.

The term is used by the rubber industry in Thailand to refer to Rubber Export Tax, which funds that country's Office of Rubber Replanting Aid Fund.

It has also been used by the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to denote a tariff on imports

The term is a shortened form of "assess"; the spelling is due to a mistaken connection with census.

Atmosphere of Earth

The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by Earth's gravity. The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation, warming the surface through heat retention (greenhouse effect), and reducing temperature extremes between day and night (the diurnal temperature variation).

The common name air (English pronunciation: /ɛər/) is given to the atmospheric gases used in breathing and photosynthesis. By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases. Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere. Air content and atmospheric pressure vary at different layers, and air suitable for the survival of terrestrial plants and terrestrial animals is found only in Earth's troposphere and artificial atmospheres.

The atmosphere has a mass of about 5.15×10¹⁸ kg, three quarters of which is within about 11 km (6.8 mi; 36,000 ft) of the surface. The atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner with increasing altitude, with no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space. The Kármán line, at 100 km (62 mi), or 1.57% of Earth's radius, is often used as the border between the atmosphere and outer space. Atmospheric effects become noticeable during atmospheric reentry of spacecraft at an altitude of around 120 km (75 mi). Several layers can be distinguished in the atmosphere, based on characteristics such as temperature and composition.