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The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. It extends from Earth's surface to an average height of about 12 km (7.5 mi; 39,000 ft), although this altitude varies from about 9 km (5.6 mi; 30,000 ft) at the geographic poles to 17 km (11 mi; 56,000 ft) at the Equator, [17] with some variation due to weather.
The five components of the climate system all interact. They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [1]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).
In meteorology, the planetary boundary layer (PBL), also known as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) or peplosphere, is the lowest part of the atmosphere and its behaviour is directly influenced by its contact with a planetary surface. [1] On Earth it usually responds to changes in surface radiative forcing in an hour or less.
The troposphere contains 75–80% of the mass of the atmosphere, [9] and is the atmospheric layer wherein the weather occurs; the height of the troposphere varies between 17 km at the equator and 7.0 km at the poles. The stratosphere extends from the top of the troposphere to the bottom of the mesosphere, and contains the ozone layer, at an ...
The areas of inland glaciers combined (not including the antarctice ice sheet), the antarctic sea ice, and the arctic sea ice are all comparable, [7] [8] so one may expect the change in ice of the arctic sea ice is roughly a third of the total change, giving 1.2% of the Earth surface turned from ice to ocean or bare ground per 0.6 °C, or ...
The increase of air temperature at stratospheric altitudes results from the ozone layer's absorption and retention of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation that Earth receives from the Sun. [7] The coldest layer of the atmosphere, where the temperature lapse rate changes from a positive rate (in the troposphere) to a negative rate (in the stratosphere ...
Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of the Earth. The Earth's atmospheric circulation varies from year to year, but the large-scale structure of its circulation remains fairly constant.
Most of Earth's surface is ocean water: 70.8% or 361 million km 2 (139 million sq mi). [97] This vast pool of salty water is often called the world ocean, [98] [99] and makes Earth with its dynamic hydrosphere a water world [100] [101] or ocean world. [102] [103] Indeed, in Earth's early history the ocean may have covered Earth completely. [104]