Later, as you will see for yourself, the temperature behaves very differently: it decreases even more, remains unchanged, and rises very strongly. Accordingly, the higher, the colder it is, about −0.65 ☌ every 100 meters. That is, in theory, you can hike and climb up almost to the boundaries of the troposphere, or at least almost all of us have overcome this distance while flying.Īir temperature in the troposphere is from about +17 ☌ on average to −51 ☌. Just slightly higher at the 10 km level passenger planes fly. The troposphere is lower in the polar regions and higher in the tropics, on average it is about 12 km.įor comparison, the height of the troposphere is “only” three kilometers higher than the highest mountain in the world, Everest (8 km and 848 meters). The height of this layer is from sea level (o km) to about 8–20 km, depending on the latitude. The troposphere is the first and closest to earth layer of the atmosphere in which we are all living. Let’s talk briefly about each of the five main types next: 1. In addition to this, there are also the ozone layer, the Karman Line, the ionosphere, and several intermediate layers, called “atmospheric pauses,” through which it becomes clear that it consists of separate layers.Īs a result, the total number of atmospheric layers is from five to seven or even ten, depending on the point of view. The first three layers are called the “lower” or “lower atmosphere,” and the last two are called the “upper” or “upper atmosphere. Illustration: Valerya Milovanova / Windy.app And again: T, S, M, T, and E.Įarth's atmospheric layers. Again: tropo-, strato-, meso-, thermo-, and exo. So, the Earth’s atmosphere has five main layers: the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. In this new lesson of the Windy.app Meteorological Textbook (WMT) and newsletter for better weather forecasting you will learn what the layers of atmosphere are, how they differ and try to remember all of this with our help. In reality the atmosphere is heterogeneous and composed of layers. “Somewhere out there at the edge of the sky the space begins,” someone thinks, because he/she has seen the moon and the stars more than once. These waves and tides carry energy from the troposphere and the stratosphere upward into the mesosphere, driving most of its global circulation.To the average observer, the Earth’s atmosphere seems to be absolutely solid. Various types of waves and tides in the atmosphere influence the mesosphere. Above the mesosphere, in the thermosphere, and beyond, gas particles collide so infrequently that the gases become somewhat separated based on the types of chemical elements they contain. At the mesopause (the top of the mesosphere) and below, gases made of different types of atoms and molecules are thoroughly mixed together by turbulence in the atmosphere. The stratosphere and mesosphere together are sometimes referred to as the middle atmosphere. Odd electrical discharges akin to lightning, called "sprites" and "ELVES", occasionally appear in the mesosphere dozens of kilometers (miles) above thunderclouds in the troposphere below. The mesosphere, like the stratosphere below it, is much drier than the moist troposphere we live in making the formation of clouds in this layer a bit of a surprise. These peculiar clouds form much, much higher up than other types of clouds. Very strange, high-altitude clouds called " noctilucent clouds" or "polar mesospheric clouds" sometimes form in the mesosphere near the poles. Some material from meteors lingers in the mesosphere, causing this layer to have a relatively high concentration of iron and other metal atoms. Since it is difficult to take measurements of the mesosphere directly using instruments, much about the mesosphere is still mysterious. Scientists use instruments on sounding rockets to sample the mesosphere directly, but such flights are brief and infrequent. Satellites orbit above the mesosphere and cannot directly measure the traits of this layer. Weather balloons and other aircraft cannot fly high enough to reach the mesosphere. The mesosphere is difficult to study, so less is known about this layer of the atmosphere than other layers. This diagram shows some of the features of the mesosphere. At the bottom of the mesosphere is the stratopause, the boundary between the mesosphere and the stratosphere. The boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere is called the mesopause. The coldest temperatures in Earth's atmosphere, about -90° C (-130° F), are found near the top of this layer. Temperature decreases with height throughout the mesosphere. It extends from about 50 to 85 km (31 to 53 miles) above our planet. The mesosphere is directly above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere. The mesosphere is a layer of Earth's atmosphere.
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