It

is cold in deep space. The temperature is in thinner and thinner (less dense) as you move
the neighborhood of -270C. That's nearly 200C away from Earth's surface. There is no real
colder than it has ever been on Earth. Near stars, boundary between the atmosphere and space.
like the Sun, it's hot - outlandishly hot - reaching The air just gets thinner and thinner until it
thousands of degrees. There are, however, a few disappears.
places here and there in the universe where the Imagine a column of air that starts on Earth's
temperature is between the extremes. Earth is surface and extends up 600 km to the top of the
one of those places. In fact, the average atmosphere. Scientists have discovered several
temperature on Earth is just about the distinct layers in this column of air. Each layer has
temperature of Baby Bear's porridge - not too hot a different temperature. Here's how it stacks up:
and not too cold, but just right. The layer we live in is the troposphere. It
On a typical day, the temperature range on our starts at Earth's surface and extends upward for 9-
planet is only about 100C, from maybe 45C in 20 km. Its thickness depends on the season and
the hottest place to -55C at one of the poles. The where you are on Earth. Over the warm equator,
measured the troposphere is a little
extremes are 58C thicker than it is over the
in El Azizia, Libya, polar regions, where the air
recorded on is colder. It also thickens
September 13, during the summer and thins
1922, and -89C in during the winter. A good
Vostok, Antarctica, average thickness for the
on July 21, 1983. troposphere is 10 km.
That's a range of This ground-floor layer
temperature on contains most of the
Earth of 147C. organisms, dust, water
It's not only vapor, and clouds found in
because we are at the entire atmosphere. For
the right distance that matter, it contains most
from the Sun that of the air as well. And, most
Earth has tolerable important, weather happens
temperatures. in the troposphere. The
Earth is wrapped troposphere is where the
in a blanket of action is. This is where
gases - the differences in air
atmosphere. temperature, humidity
Earth's (moisture), pressure, and
atmosphere keeps wind occur.
the temperature These properties of
within a narrow temperature, humidity,
range that is pressure, and wind are called
suitable for life. weather factors. Meteorologists launch weather
From space, Earth's atmosphere looks like a balloons twice each day to monitor weather
thin blue veil. Some people like to think of the factors. The balloons float up through the
atmosphere as an ocean of air covering the Earth. troposphere to about 18 km. Weather factors will
The depth of this "ocean" is about 600 kilometers be investigated in detail as we continue to study
(km). The atmosphere is densest right at the weather.
bottom where it rests on Earth's surface. It gets
 The troposphere is the thinnest layer - only flares, the temperature of the thermosphere can
about 2% of the depth of the atmosphere. It is the surge up to 1500C or higher!
densest layer, however, containing four-fifths Within the thermosphere is a layer noted for
(80%) of the total mass of the atmosphere. its chemistry, the ionosphere. The ionosphere
Earth's surface (land and water) absorbs heat contains a large number of electrically charged
from the Sun and warms the air above it. Because ions. Ions form when intense radiation from the
air in the troposphere is heated mostly by Earth's Sun hits atoms and molecules. The ionosphere is
surface, the air is warmest close to the ground. responsible for the aurora borealis, or northern
The air temperature drops as you go higher. At its lights, and the aurora australis, or southern lights.
upper limit, the temperature of the troposphere is The identification of these four layers is based
about -60C. The average temperature of the on temperature. There are no sharp boundaries
troposphere is about 25C. or abrupt changes in gas composition between
Mount Everest, located in Nepal and Tibet, is them. As average temperatures change with the
the highest landform on Earth, rising 8,848 km seasons, the boundaries between layers may move
into the troposphere. The air temperature at the up or down a little.
top of the mountain is well below freezing most of Beyond the thermosphere, Earth's atmosphere
the time. There is also less air to breathe at the makes a transition into space. This area is the
top of Mount Everest. Climbers usually bring exosphere where atoms and molecules escape
oxygen along to help them survive the thin air. into space. It extends from 300 - 600 km above
The stratosphere is the layer above the Earth. In this region, the temperature plunges to
troposphere. It is 10-50 km above Earth's surface the extreme -270C of outer space, and the
and contains almost no moisture or dust. It does, concentration of atmospheric gases fades to
however, contain a layer of ozone (O3), a form of nothing.
oxygen, that absorbs high-energy ultraviolet (UV) That 600-km column of air pushes down on
radiation from the Sun. The temperature stays the surface of Earth with a lot of force. We call the
cold until you reach the upper reaches of the force air pressure, or atmospheric pressure. We
stratosphere, where energy absorption by ozone are not aware of it because we are adapted to live
warms the air to about 0C. under all that pressure, but there is a mass of 1
The jet stream, a fast-flowing river of wind, kilogram (kg) pushing down on every square
travels generally west to east in the region centimeter of surface on Earth. Your head has a
between the lower stratosphere and the upper surface area of about 150 cm2. This means you
stratosphere. Many military and commercial jet have about 150 kg of air parked on your head.
aircraft take advantage of the jet stream when That's about like having a kitchen stove or a
flying from west to east. motorcycle pushing down on your head all the
The mesosphere is above the stratosphere, time!
50-80 km above Earth's surface. The temperature
plunges again, reaching its coldest temperature
around -90C in the upper mesosphere. This is
the layer in which meteors burn up while entering
Earth's atmosphere, producing what we call
shooting stars.
Beyond the mesosphere, 80 - 300 km above
the Earth, is the thermosphere. The
thermosphere is the least-understood layer of the
atmosphere and the most difficult to measure.
The air is extremely thin. The thermosphere is the
region of the atmosphere that is first heated by the
Sun. A small amount of energy coming from the
Sun can result in a large temperature change.
When the Sun is extra active with sunspots or