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The variation in temperature that occurs from the highs of the day to the cool of nights is called diurnal temperature variation. Temperature ranges can also be based on periods of a month or a year. The size of ground-level atmospheric temperature ranges depends on several factors, such as: Average air temperature; Average humidity; The regime ...
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 ...
Temperature lag, also known as thermal inertia, is an important factor in diurnal temperature variation. Peak daily temperature generally occurs after noon, as air keeps absorbing net heat for a period of time from morning through noon and some time thereafter. Similarly, minimum daily temperature generally occurs substantially after midnight ...
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 atmosphere of the Earth is in five layers: (i) the exosphere at 600+ km; (ii) the thermosphere at 600 km;
This increase of temperature with altitude is characteristic of the stratosphere; its resistance to vertical mixing means that it is stratified. Within the stratosphere temperatures increase with altitude (see temperature inversion); the top of the stratosphere has a temperature of about 270 K (−3°C or 26.6°F). [9] [page needed]
The lighter constituents atomic oxygen (O), helium (He), and hydrogen (H) successively dominate above an altitude of about 200 kilometres (124 mi) and vary with geographic location, time, and solar activity. The ratio N 2 /O which is a measure of the electron density at the ionospheric F region is highly affected by these variations. [2]
In the mesosphere, temperature decreases as altitude increases. This characteristic is used to define limits: it begins at the top of the stratosphere (sometimes called the stratopause ), and ends at the mesopause , which is the coldest part of Earth's atmosphere , with temperatures below −143 °C (−225 °F; 130 K).
Atmospheric density decreases as the altitude increases. This variation can be approximately modeled using the barometric formula. More sophisticated models are used to predict the orbital decay of satellites. The average mass of the atmosphere is about 5 quadrillion (5 × 10 15) tonnes or 1/1,200,000 the mass of Earth.