Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The stratosphere is the second-lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. It lies above the troposphere and is separated from it by the tropopause. This layer extends from the top of the troposphere at roughly 12 km (7.5 mi; 39,000 ft) above Earth's surface to the stratopause at an altitude of about 50 to 55 km (31 to 34 mi; 164,000 to 180,000 ft).
The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere. This extends from the planetary surface to the bottom of the stratosphere. 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 layers are to scale. From the Earth's surface to the top of the stratosphere (50km) is just under 1% of Earth's radius. The exosphere is a thin, atmosphere-like volume surrounding a planet or natural satellite where molecules are gravitationally bound to that body, but where the density is so low that the molecules are essentially collision ...
Diagram showing the five primary layers of the Earth's atmosphere: exosphere, thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere, and troposphere. The layers are not to scale. The stratosphere (/ ˈ s t r æ t ə ˌ s f ɪər,-t oʊ-/) is the second-lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere.
The molecular layer is cool enough to contain molecules rather than plasma, and may consist of such components as carbon monoxide, water vapor, silicon monoxide, and titanium oxide. The outermost part of the stellar atmosphere, or upper stellar atmosphere, is the corona, a tenuous plasma which has a temperature above one million Kelvin. [6]
In addition to the surface layer, the planetary boundary layer also comprises the PBL core (between 0.1 and 0.7 of the PBL depth) and the PBL top or entrainment layer or capping inversion layer (between 0.7 and 1 of the PBL depth). Four main external factors determine the PBL depth and its mean vertical structure:
The density of the Earth's atmosphere decreases nearly exponentially with altitude. The total mass of the atmosphere is M = ρ A H ≃ 1 kg/cm 2 within a column of one square centimeter above the ground (with ρ A = 1.29 kg/m 3 the atmospheric density on the ground at z = 0 m altitude, and H ≃ 8 km the average atmospheric scale height).
Upper atmosphere is a collective term that refers to various layers of the atmosphere of the Earth above the troposphere [1] and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets, and includes: