TOPIC – STRUCTURE OF THE

ATMOSPHERE

BY – BHUMIKA SAMBYAL
INTRODUCTION
 ATMOSPHERE: The atmosphere is the blanket of gases which surrounds Earth. It is held near the
surface of the planet by Earth’s gravitational attraction. Without atmosphere there could be no life on
Earth.
 From the sea level to the uppermost limit of atmosphere, it consists of a many concentric layers.
 Each layer has different temperature, air pressure, and different constituent gases.
 Climatologists have classified atmosphere into following layers: Troposphere

Stratosphere
Exosphere

Ionosphere Mesosphere
Troposphere is the lowermost layer and is most important because almost all of the weather phenomena for
e.g. fog, cloud, dew, frost, rainfall, hailstorm, lightning, etc , occur in this layer.
 The average height of the troposphere is about 16km over the equator and 6km over the poles.
  The height of the top of the troposphere varies with latitude (it is lowest over the poles and highest
at the equator) and by season (it is lower in winter and higher in summer). It can be as high as 20
km near the equator, and as low as 7 km over the poles in winter.
 The rate of temperature decreases with increase in height (the reason being that troposphere
absorbs very little solar radiation).
TROPOPAUSE: The upper limit of troposphere is tropopause . It is 1.5km thick. It seperates
troposphere from stratosphere.
• The layer above troposphere is called stratosphere. There is a contrast of opinions about the height and
thickness of stratosphere. The average height is determined to be about 25-30 kilometers where some say it is
about 80 kms. On average the estimated height is 50 kms.
• The rate of temperature increases with the increase in the height till stratopause because of the UV rays as
ozone layer is left behind.
• Aeroplanes , jets fly in the lower layer because the temperature gets warmer resulting in fewer clouds and
water vapours which provide a smooth ride due to absence of turbulence.
STRATOPAUSE : The upper limit of stratosphere is called stratopause. It’s the limit which seperates
stratosphere from mesosphere.
• This is the layer above stratosphere . This layer extends from 80km above stratosphere.
• The rate of temperature gradually starts decreasing with increasing height ( temperature goes to -80 degree
Celsius with the altitude of 80 km ).
• This is because there are less gas molecules in mesosphere to absorb the sun’s radiation.
Mesopause: The uppermost layer of mesosphere is mesopause. This layer seperates mesosphere from
thermosphere.
 The part of atmosphere beyond and above the mesosphere is called thermosphere . The layer
is extended upto 400km.
 The rate of temperature increases with the increase in height( this is because the height of
layer which makes it closer to the sun and of ions i.e. charged particles).
 The temperature reaches upto 1700 degree Celsius.
Thermopause: The last limit of thermosphere (height not decided) . Here the temperature cannot
be measures by ordinary thermometer because gases become very light due to extremely low
density.
 Thermosphere
IONOSPHERE

EXOSPHERE

IONOSPHERE: IT EXTENDS TO 640KMS . THIS LAYER HAS MAJOR SIGNIFICANCE THAT

IT HELPS IN RADIOWAVE RADIATION TRANSMISSION.

EXOSPHERE : IT IS THE UPPERMOST LAYER WHICH IS BEYOND 640KMS. THIS LAYER IS

LIMITLESS AND CONSISTS OF LIGHT GASES. DUE TO EXPOSURE TO DIRECT SUNLIGHT
TEMPERATURE REACHES ABOVE 5000 DEGREE CELSIUS.
THANK YOU