Rådjur layer
The atmosphere of the earth is the layer of gases commonly called air that surrounds the earth and creates an inhabitable environment, maintains temperature, causes weather, and protects its inhabitants from solar radiation. Scientists divide the atmosphere into 5 different layers based on factors like air pressure and density.
Layers of The Earth
The names of these layers, in order of lowest to highest, are:. Temperature: 62°F 17°C around the lowest point to °F °C near the top. The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere, and it is where we live. It extends up to 5 to 10 miles 8 to 15 km above the surface. It is the densest layer, containing more than half the volume of total air.
Most of the atmospheric water vapor and dust are found here.
Layers of the Earth’s Atmosphere
This means that all the weather that we experience occurs at this level, as clouds are formed here. In the troposphere, the temperature falls as we get higher up, and is the lowest at the tropopause that acts as the boundary between this layer and the next. Temperature: °F °C near the tropopause to 5°F °C near the next layer. Lies just above the troposphere, extending up to 31 miles 50 km high.
It is the part of the atmosphere that contains the ozone layer , which is essential for our survival as it blocks the harmful UV rays of the Sun from reaching us. Unlike the troposphere, in this layer, the temperature increases as we go higher.
Also, jet aircraft and weather balloons fly in this layer as there is less turbulence. The stratopause acts as the boundary between the stratosphere and the mesosphere. The mesosphere extends from just above the stratosphere to miles km high. It is the coldest layer of the atmosphere, with the temperature dropping to its lowest at the boundary between the mesosphere and thermosphere, called the mesopause.
Temperature: The temperatures in this layer depend on solar activity and can get as hot as °F °C to 3,°F 2,°C near the upper thermosphere. This layer extends from the mesopause to about miles km high. It is the hottest layer of the atmosphere, but the air density is so low that the high temperature cannot be felt at all. Most of the thermosphere is actually considered part of outer space due to this low air density.
This is where the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis occur. They are caused by collisions between charged particles from space and the air molecules in the thermosphere and can be seen as spectacular displays of light in the sky near the north and south poles respectively. Temperature: This layer has considerable cosmic radiation, which means the particles in the exosphere are full of kinetic energy.
They can reach temperatures up to °F °C ; however, since this layer is practically a vacuum with few atoms and molecules, this stored kinetic energy rarely gets converted to thermal or heat energy. As a result, the temperature remains freezing, close to an absolute zero. The exosphere extends from the upper boundary of the thermosphere, between and miles and 1, km.
The exact altitude can vary based on solar activity. Its lower boundary is called exobase or exopause, and this is the altitude above which atmospheric temperature remains almost constant.
2.2: Layers of the Earth - Geosciences LibreTexts
The exosphere is the least dense layer of the atmosphere, comprised of mostly helium and hydrogen. The thermosphere is where satellites and space stations, like the International Space Station, orbit the Earth. Airplanes and other commercial aircraft fly in the troposphere. The Kármán line, at 62 miles km above the surface, is often said to be the point at which outer space starts.
The ionosphere is a layer of charged particles ions that stretches from 48 km above the surface to around km.