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Atop the troposphere is the tropopause, which is the functional atmospheric border that demarcates the troposphere from the stratosphere. As such, because the tropopause is an inversion layer in which air-temperature increases with altitude, the temperature of the tropopause remains constant. [2] The layer has the largest concentration of nitrogen.
The tropopause is defined as the lowest level at which the lapse rate decreases to 2°C/km or less, provided that the average lapse-rate, between that level and all other higher levels within 2.0 km does not exceed 2°C/km. [1] The tropopause is a first-order discontinuity surface, in which temperature as a function of height varies ...
The troposphere is thicker in the equator and thinner at the poles, but the global mean of its thickness is around 11 km. Inside the troposphere, the temperature drops approximately linearly at a rate of 6.5 Celsius degrees per km, from a global mean of 288 Kelvin (15 Celsius) on the ground to 220 K
Although the temperature may be −60 °C (−76 °F; 210 K) at the tropopause, the top of the stratosphere is much warmer, and may be near 0 °C. [24] The stratospheric temperature profile creates very stable atmospheric conditions, so the stratosphere lacks the weather-producing air turbulence that is so prevalent in the troposphere.
Temperature differences also drive a set of circulation cells, whose axes of circulation are longitudinally oriented. This atmospheric motion is known as zonal overturning circulation . Latitudinal circulation is a result of the highest solar radiation per unit area (solar intensity) falling on the tropics.
The upper temperature level is given by the soil or water surface of the Earth, which absorbs the incoming sun radiation and warms up, evaporating water. The moist and warm air at the ground is lighter than its surroundings and rises up to the upper limit of the troposphere.
It varies with the temperature and pressure of the parcel and is often in the range 3.6 to 9.2 °C/km (2 to 5 °F/1000 ft), as obtained from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The environmental lapse rate is the decrease in temperature of air with altitude for a specific time and place (see below). It can be highly variable ...
It provides an approximation for the temperature of the tropopause on terrestrial planets with greenhouse gases present in their atmospheres. The skin temperature of an atmosphere should not be confused with the surface skin temperature, which is more readily measured by satellites, and depends on the thermal emission at the surface of a planet ...