Internal combustion engine the atmosphere by the reaction of and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. Ground-level ozone is harmful to human health and the environment. Though the same chemical substance, ground-level ozone should not be confused with stratospheric ozone, or the ozone layer, which protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet rays. Carbon fuels contain sulfur and impurities that eventually produce sulfur monoxides (SO) and sulfur dioxide (SO) in the exhaust, which promotes acid rain. In the United States, nitrogen oxides, PM, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and ozone, are regulated as criteria air pollutants under the Clean Air Act to levels
Nitrogen dioxide the colorless dinitrogen tetroxide () below . The bond length between the nitrogen atom and the oxygen atom is 119.7 pm. This bond length is consistent with a bond order between one and two. Unlike ozone, O, the ground electronic state of nitrogen dioxide is a doublet state, since nitrogen has one unpaired electron, which decreases the alpha effect compared with nitrite and creates a weak bonding interaction with the oxygen lone pairs. The lone electron in also means that this compound is a free radical, so the formula for nitrogen dioxide is often written as . The reddish-brown color