Atmosphere

Katelyn Albright
2nd Hour
October 4, 2017
 Troposphere
Extends about 7-20 km above the Earths surface.
Almost all the weather occurs within this layer.
The air is the warmest at the bottom of the
troposphere near ground level.
The higher up it goes, the colder it gets.
Air pressure and the density of the air are also less at
high altitudes.
Nearly all the water vapor and dust particles are located
in the troposphere.
The bottom of the troposphere that is closest to the
Earths surface is called the boundary layer.
The top of the troposphere is really cold, around -55 C
(-64 F).
Air gets thinner as you go up higher.

Stratosphere
The second layer in the Earths atmosphere.
It is above the troposphere but below the mesosphere.
The top of the Stratosphere occurs at 50 km.
The boundary between the stratosphere and the
mesosphere is called the stratopause.
The bottom varies depending on the latitude and with the
seasons, occurring between 8-16 km.
The stratosphere is 16 km above the Earths surface near
the equator, and around 10 km at mid-latitudes, and 8 km
near the poles.
Slightly lower in winter at mid- and high-latitudes, and
slightly higher in the summer.
Boundary between the stratosphere and troposphere is
called tropopause.
The ozone is an unusual type of oxygen molecule that is
relatively abundant in the stratosphere.
Heats this layer because it absorbs energy from incoming
ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
 Mesosphere
Above the Stratosphere layer.
Layer above the mesosphere is called the thermosphere.
Starts 50 km above Earths surface and goes up to 85 km.
Temperature gets colder as you get higher, top of the mesosphere is -90
C (-130 F).
Mesopause is the boundary between the mesosphere and thermosphere.
Stratopause is the boundary between the mesosphere and stratosphere.
Scientist know little about this atmosphere, it cant be studied thoroughly
because weather balloons and jet planes cannot fly that high.
Scientist do know that most meteors burn up in this layer.
There is a cloud called noctilucent clouds that form near the North and
South Poles. They also have types of lightning called sprites or ELVES.
Which appear dozen of miles above the thunderclouds in the troposphere
below.
Different kinds of gases are mixed together in the air, which is so thin
that atoms and molecules of gases rarely run into each other.
Some gases get separated depending what kind of elements (nitrogen or
oxygen) that are in them.
 Thermosphere
Directly above the mesosphere and below the exosphere.
Extends from 90 km to between 500 and 1,000 km.
Temperature climb sharply in the lower thermosphere (below
200 to 300 km altitude).
The temperature stays the same with a steady increase above
height.
Solar activity strongly influences temperature, usually 200 C
(360 F) hotter in the daytime than at night.
The upper thermosphere can range from 500 C (932 F) to 2,000
C (3,632 F) or higher.
The boundary between the Thermosphere and Exosphere is
called the Thermopause.
Most of X-ray and UV radiation from the sun is absorbed in the
thermosphere.