Oxygen in the Atmosphere:

Summary

Workers at ALMA must take extra safety precautions when working at 5,000 m above sea level. At high elevations, there are fewer gas molecules in the air and the PO2 is lower. The lower PO2, it turns out, is very important.

Continue to the next tab, “Oxygen in the Body,” to explore how our bodies use PO2 differences to move crucial oxygen molecules out of the air and into cells.

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Oxygen in the Body
A photograph of two workers wearing backpacks with supplemental oxygen, standing in front of and pointing to a high-altitude antenna array.
Figure 6. Workers carry supplemental oxygen at 5,000 m above sea level. (Credits: ALMA Observatory, CC BY 3.0.)