What's In This Article...
What Is Atmosphere?
The atmosphere is the thin layer of gases that surrounds the Earth. It consists of air, water vapor, and other gases. The atmosphere performs a number of vital functions, including regulating the flow of heat and water on the surface. The atmosphere also protects living organisms from the Sun’s harmful rays and space debris, and it provides a medium for the transmission of sound and light.
Why Is the Atmosphere Important?
The atmosphere is one of the key components of the global ecosystem. It provides the human race with clean air and water, regulates the Earth’s climate, and protects life from the Sun’s harmful rays and space debris. The atmosphere also serves as a medium for the transmission of sound and light, and it is crucial to the functioning of the global economy. If humans were to destroy the atmosphere, life as we know it would end.
The atmosphere is important because it protects living organisms on the Earth’s surface from the Sun’s harmful rays and space debris. It provides a medium for the transmission of sound and light. The atmosphere also regulates the flow of heat and water on the surface. The atmosphere protects life on the Earth as a whole.
Layers Of Atmosphere
The atmosphere is made up of different layers, or regions, of varying pressure and temperature. Here is the list that contains names of each layer of atmosphere in a chronological way.
- Troposphere
- Stratosphere
- Mesosphere
- Thermosphere
- Exosphere
Troposphere
The Troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere, located close to the Earth’s surface. The Troposphere is where weather takes place. Winds, clouds, storms, and precipitation all occur in the Troposphere.
The troposphere is about 5 to 9 miles thick above the Earth’s surface.
This is the layer of atmosphere where carbon has highest concentration.
Stratosphere
The Stratosphere is the second layer of the atmosphere. It is located between about 10 and 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. The Stratosphere is where objects in space — satellites, airplanes, and astronauts — travel. The temperature in the Stratosphere varies, the lower stratosphere is cooler than the upper stratosphere. The reason behind the increase in temperature as the height increase in the stratospheric layer is the ozone, during the formation of ozone, it releases heat that creates disturbance in temperature.
Ozone and Its Importance
The Stratosphere is also where the ozone layer exists. The ozone layer protects life on the surface from the Sun’s harmful rays. The ozone layer also regulates the temperature of the Troposphere by preventing heat from escaping. If the ozone layer were destroyed, the temperature of the Troposphere would increase very rapidly, resulting in extreme weather all over the world.
Ozone is an odorless, colorless gas that is formed when the air containing oxygen is exposed to the Sun’s ultraviolet rays. Ozone occurs naturally in the Stratosphere. However, when humans release huge amounts of harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, the amount of ozone in the Stratosphere decreases.
Mesosphere
The Mesosphere is the third layer of the atmosphere. It is located between about 50 and 100 miles above the Earth’s surface. The temperature in the Mesosphere is about 2 to 5 degrees Celsius warmer than the temperature at the surface. The Mesosphere is also known as the “Middle Atmosphere”.
The Mesosphere is home to the mesosphere balloon, which is an altitude record-holding hot air balloon. Because of the lower pressure and higher temperatures in the Mesosphere, the air is much less dense than the air at the surface.
It is also where most weather forecasting is done.
Thermosphere
The Thermosphere is the fourth layer of the atmosphere. It is located between about 100 and 400 miles above the Earth’s surface. The temperature in the Thermosphere is about 200 degrees Celsius warmer than the temperature at the surface. The temperature and density of the Thermosphere is such that very little of the sunlight that reaches the Earth is reflected back into space.
Thermosphere is also known as the “Thermal Atmosphere”.
Auroras and satellites occur in this layer of atmosphere.
The Thermosphere is home to the aurora, which are the colorful displays of light in the sky that are seen when charged particles from the Sun collide with atoms high in the atmosphere. The Thermosphere is also where most of the chemical reactions that occur in the atmosphere occur.
Exosphere
The Exosphere is the outermost layer of the atmosphere. It is located above the Thermosphere and extends from 400 miles above the surface of the Earth. The temperature in the Exosphere is very low, about -183 degrees Celsius (-297 degrees Fahrenheit). The density of the Exosphere is so low that most of the atoms in the Exosphere are free.
Ionosphere
The top layer of the atmosphere, the ionosphere, is the most electrically charged layer of the atmosphere. It extends from the thermosphere, exosphere and goes to space till empty of atoms. It is the part of the atmosphere that receives the most sunlight and is home to the aurora.
It consists of electrically charged particles that are suspended in the atmosphere. Most of the charged particles are found in the thermosphere and that’s the reason behind auroras present in the thermosphere.
These charged particles and our Earth’s magnetic field prevents us from the Sun, solar winds, ionospheric storms and the harmful effects of various radiations of sun and other radiations traveling across the universe.
Composition Of Gas In Air
| Component | Percentage of Volume |
|---|---|
| Nitrogen | 78.09 |
| Oxygen | 20.93 |
| Argon | 0.93 |
| Carbon Dioxide | 0.03 |
| Miscellaneous (moisture, dust, etc.) | 0.02 |
How High does the Atmosphere Extend from the Earth (Height of Atmosphere)
There is no perfect boundary of the atmosphere with the vacuum of space.
One can imagine this situation as a spectrum of different layers of atmosphere. As the changes of temperature and pressure increases or decreases with the height, we give that region of sky a specific naming that is the different layers of the atmosphere. And the last layer of the exosphere goes even higher till there is no pressure around, that is the outermost part though not a specific line or boundary.
So basically there are 5 layers of atmosphere, don’t get confused about ionosphere, ionosphere is a special case to explain the electrically charged particles and their effects such as auroras, ionospheric storms, etc.
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