Layers of earth's atmosphere ~ SCRIBBLE SPHERE

Layers of Earth's Atmosphere

Earth's Atmosphere :

Earth’s atmosphere is similar to a jacket for our planet. It surrounds our planet, keeps us warm, gives us oxygen to breathe, and it is where our weather happens. Earth’s atmosphere has six layers:

1.The troposphere
2.The stratosphere
3.The mesosphere
4.The thermosphere
5.The ionosphere
6.The exosphere

Earth is a great planet to live on because it has a wonderful atmosphere around it. This jacket of gases does a lot for us. It keeps us warm, it gives us oxygen to breathe, and it’s where our weather happens.

The atmosphere surrounds our planet like the peel of an orange. But it’s not the same everywhere. It has different layers with different qualities.

The Troposphere :

Source :nasa

Closest to the surface of Earth,we have the troposphere. “Tropos” means change. This layer gets its name from the weather that is constantly changing and mixing up the gases in this part of our atmosphere.

The troposphere is between 5 and 9 miles (8 and 14 kilometers) thick depending on where you are on Earth. It’s thinnest at the North and South Pole.

This layer has the air we breathe and the clouds in the sky. The air is densest in this lowest layer. In fact, the troposphere contains three-quarters of the mass of the entire atmosphere. The air here is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. The last 1% is made of argon, water vapor, and carbon dioxide.

When you feel the wind on your face, see clouds in the sky, and watch a bird flap its wings in flight, you’re experiencing the troposphere. It’s a pretty nice layer to call home.

The Stratosphere :

Source :nasa

Above the troposphere and below the mesosphere, we have the stratosphere. “Strat” means layer. This layer of our atmosphere has its own set of layers. There are no storms or turbulence here to mix up the air, so cold, heavy air is at the bottom and warm, light air is at the top. That’s the opposite of how the layers work in the troposphere, where we live. If you were to climb a mountain in the stratosphere you would have to take off your warm clothes as you got closer to the top rather than putting them on like we usually do. But there are no mountains high enough to reach the stratosphere, so you don’t have to worry about that.

This layer is 22 miles (35 kilometers) thick. The stratosphere is where you’ll find the very important ozone layer. The ozone layer helps protect us from ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the sun. In fact, the ozone layer absorbs most of the UV radiation the sun sends to us. Life as we know it wouldn’t be possible without this layer of protection.

The Mesosphere :

Source :nasa

The mesosphere lies between the thermosphere and the stratosphere. “Meso” means middle, and this is the highest layer of the atmosphere in which the gases are all mixed up rather than being layered by their mass.

The mesosphere is 22 miles (35 kilometers) thick. The air is still thin, so you wouldn’t be able to breathe up in the mesosphere. But there is more gas in this layer than there is out in the thermosphere.

Have you ever seen a meteor shower, where meteors burn up and streak across the sky? Some people call them shooting stars. Those meteors are burning up in the mesosphere. The meteors make it through the exosphere and thermosphere without much trouble because those layers don’t have much air. But when they hit the mesosphere, there are enough gases to cause friction and create heat.

The thermosphere :

Source :nasa

The thermosphere lies between the exosphere and the mesosphere . “Thermo” means heat, and the temperature in this layer can reach up to 4,500 degrees Fahrenheit. If you were to hang out in the thermosphere, though, you would be very cold because there aren’t enough gas molecules to transfer the heat to you. This also means there aren’t enough molecules for sound waves to travel through.

This layer of Earth’s atmosphere is about 319 miles (513 kilometers) thick. That’s much thicker than the inner layers of the atmosphere, but not nearly as thick as the exosphere.

The thermosphere is home to the International Space Station as it orbits Earth. This is also where you’ll find low Earth orbit satellites. There’s a lot going on in the thermosphere!

The ionosphere :

Source :nasa

An interesting layer called the ionosphere overlaps the mesosphere , thermosphere , and exosphere . It’s a very active part of the atmosphere, and it grows and shrinks depending on the energy it absorbs from the sun. Its name comes from the fact that gases in these layers are excited by solar radiation to form “ions,” which have an electrical charge.

Parts of the ionosphere overlap with Earth’s magnetosphere. That’s the area around Earth where charged particles feel Earth’s magnetic field.

In the ionosphere, charged particles are affected by the magnetic fields of both Earth and the sun. This is where auroras happen. Those are the bright, beautiful bands of light that you sometimes see near Earth’s poles. They’re caused by high-energy particles from the sun interacting with the atoms in this layer of our atmosphere.

The Exosphere :

Source :nasa

The exosphere is the outermost layer of our atmosphere. “Exo” means outside and is the same prefix used to describe insects like grasshoppers that have a hard shell or “exoskeleton” on the outside of their body.

The exosphere is the very edge of our atmosphere. This layer separates the rest of the atmosphere from outer space. It’s about 6,200 miles (10,000 kilometers) thick. That’s almost as wide as Earth itself. The exosphere is really, really big. That means that to get to outer space, you have to be really far from Earth.

The exosphere has gases like hydrogen and helium, but they are very spread out. There is a lot of empty space in between. There is no air to breathe, and it’s very cold.