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The stratosphere is the second-lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. It lies above the troposphere and is separated from it by the tropopause. This layer extends from the top of the troposphere at roughly 12 km (7.5 mi; 39,000 ft) above Earth's surface to the stratopause at an altitude of about 50 to 55 km (31 to 34 mi; 164,000 to 180,000 ft).
The heterosphere is the layer of an atmosphere where gases are separated out by molecular diffusion with increasing altitude such that lighter species become more abundant relative to heavier species. The heavier molecules and atoms tend to be present in the lower layers of the heterosphere while the lighter ones are present higher up.
The named layers of the atmosphere apply only to the measured temperature profile, because their definition relies on the presence of inversions. A multi-layered model of a greenhouse atmosphere will produce predicted temperatures for the atmosphere that decrease with height, asymptotically approaching the skin temperature at high altitudes. [3]
The three-cell model of the atmosphere of the Earth describes the actual flow of the atmosphere with the tropical-latitude Hadley cell, the mid-latitude Ferrel cell, and the polar cell to describe the flow of energy and the circulation of the planetary atmosphere. Balance is the fundamental principle of the model — that the solar energy ...
Diagram showing the five primary layers of the Earth's atmosphere: exosphere, thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere, and troposphere. The layers are not to scale. The stratosphere (/ ˈ s t r æ t ə ˌ s f ɪər,-t oʊ-/) is the second-lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere.
The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere. This extends from the planetary surface to the bottom of the stratosphere. The troposphere contains 75–80% of the mass of the atmosphere, [9] and is the atmospheric layer wherein the weather occurs; the height of the troposphere varies between 17 km at the equator and 7.0 km at the poles.
The layers are to scale. From the Earth's surface to the top of the stratosphere (50km) is just under 1% of Earth's radius. The exosphere is a thin, atmosphere-like volume surrounding a planet or natural satellite where molecules are gravitationally bound to that body, but where the density is so low that the molecules are essentially collision ...
The troposphere is the lowest of the four layers and extends from the surface of the Earth to about 11 km (6.8 mi) into the atmosphere, where the tropopause (the boundary between the troposphere stratosphere) is located. The width of the troposphere can vary depending on latitude: for example, the troposphere is thicker in the tropics (about 16 ...