Find answers, ask questions, and connect with our
community around the world.

Activity Discussion Environment Atmosphere Reply To: Atmosphere

  • Mahima

    Member
    May 26, 2021 at 6:17 pm
    Helpful
    Up
    0
    Down
    Not Helpful
    ::

    The temperature of the atmosphere may be used to split it into tiers. The four layers are troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and last but not least thermosphere. The exosphere is a separate zone that begins roughly 500 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

    TROPOSPHERE

    This is where we reside, at the bottom of the atmosphere. Clouds, rain, and snow make up the majority of our weather. The temperature in this area of the atmosphere drops by around 6.5°C per kilometer as the distance above the earth increases. Depending on the weather, the actual temperature difference with height changes from day today.

    The troposphere is home to nearly all of the air in the atmosphere, as well as almost all of the water vapor (which forms clouds and rain). The lowering pressure causes the temperature to drop as you climb higher. When a packet of air rises, it expands (because of the lower pressure). The air cools as it expands. As a result, air higher in the atmosphere is colder than air lower in the atmosphere.

    The boundary layer is the last layer of the troposphere. The tropopause is the top of the troposphere.

    STRATOSPHERE

    This reaches around 50 kilometers above the tropopause. Stratosphere is mainly responsible for a huge portion of the ozone in the atmosphere. The absorption of ultraviolet (UV) energy from the sun by this ozone causes the temperature to rise with height. Temperatures are greatest over the summer pole and lowest over the winter pole. The ozone in the stratosphere protects humans from skin cancer and other health problems by absorbing harmful UV light.

    MESOSPHERE

    The mesosphere is the area above the stratosphere. The temperature drops with height here as well, reaching a low of roughly -90°C at the “mesopause.”

    THERMOSPHERE AND IONOSPHERE

    The thermosphere is a zone above the mesopause when temperatures begin to rise again with altitude. The absorption of energetic UV and X-Ray energy from the sun causes this temperature rise.

    Because powerful solar radiation knocks electrons off molecules and atoms, converting them into “ions” with a positive charge, the area of the atmosphere above about 80 km is also known as the “ionosphere.” The thermosphere’s temperature, as well as the quantity of ions and electrons present, fluctuates from night to day and season to season. The ionosphere reflects and absorbs radio waves, we may hear shortwave radio broadcasts from all over the world in New Zealand.

    EXOSPHERE

    The exosphere is the area above 500 kilometers. It is mostly made up of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, but they are so less in quantity therefore they seldom collide. Instead, they follow “ballistic” trajectories under the force of gravity, and some of them even escape into space.

    MAGNETOSPHERE

    The earth acts as a massive magnet. The Van Allen “radiation” belts capture electrons (negative charge) and protons (positive charge), concentrating them in two bands about 3,000 and 16,000 kilometers above the earth’s surface. The magnetosphere is the outer zone encircling the earth where charged particles spiral along magnetic field lines.

For Worksheets & PrintablesJoin Now
+