Atmosphere how many layers

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. An atmosphere is the layers of gases surrounding a planet or other celestial body.

These gases are found in layers troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere defined by unique features such as temperature and pressure. The atmosphere protects life on earth by shielding it from incoming ultraviolet UV radiation, keeping the planet warm through insulation, and preventing extremes between day and night temperatures.

The sun heats layers of the atmosphere causing it to convect driving air movement and weather patterns around the world. Teach your students about the Earth's atmosphere with the resources in this collection. We live at the bottom of an invisible ocean called the atmosphere, a layer of gases surrounding our planet. Nitrogen and oxygen account for 99 percent of the gases in dry air, with argon, carbon dioxide, helium, neon, and other gases making up minute portions. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students.

Skip to content. Image Moon Earth Troposhere Silver-blue noctilucent clouds are shown extending far above the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and densest part of Earth's atmosphere. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.

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However chemicals called CFCs or freons, and halons which were once used in refrigerators, spray cans and fire extinguishers have reduced the amount of ozone in the stratosphere, particularly at polar latitudes, leading to the so-called "Antarctic ozone hole". Now humans have stopped making most of the harmful CFCs we expect the ozone hole will eventually recover over the 21 st century, but this is a slow process. The region above the stratosphere is called the mesosphere.

The thermosphere lies above the mesopause, and is a region in which temperatures again increase with height. This temperature increase is caused by the absorption of energetic ultraviolet and X-Ray radiation from the sun. The region of the atmosphere above about 80 km is also caused the "ionosphere", since the energetic solar radiation knocks electrons off molecules and atoms, turning them into "ions" with a positive charge.

The temperature of the thermosphere varies between night and day and between the seasons, as do the numbers of ions and electrons which are present. The ionosphere reflects and absorbs radio waves, allowing us to receive shortwave radio broadcasts in New Zealand from other parts of the world.

The region above about km is called the exosphere. It contains mainly oxygen and hydrogen atoms, but there are so few of them that they rarely collide - they follow "ballistic" trajectories under the influence of gravity, and some of them escape right out into space. The earth behaves like a huge magnet. It traps electrons negative charge and protons positive , concentrating them in two bands about 3, and 16, km above the globe - the Van Allen "radiation" belts.

This outer region surrounding the earth, where charged particles spiral along the magnetic field lines, is called the magnetosphere. Jump to Navigation Skip to main content. The different layers of the atmosphere The atmosphere can be divided into layers based on its temperature, as shown in the figure below.

The Troposphere This is the lowest part of the atmosphere - the part we live in. The Stratosphere This extends upwards from the tropopause to about 50 km. The Mesosphere The region above the stratosphere is called the mesosphere. The Thermosphere and Ionosphere The thermosphere lies above the mesopause, and is a region in which temperatures again increase with height.

The Exosphere The region above about km is called the exosphere. The stratosphere extends from the top of the troposphere to about 50 km 31 miles above the ground. The infamous ozone layer is found within the stratosphere. Ozone molecules in this layer absorb high-energy ultraviolet UV light from the Sun, converting the UV energy into heat.

Unlike the troposphere, the stratosphere actually gets warmer the higher you go! That trend of rising temperatures with altitude means that air in the stratosphere lacks the turbulence and updrafts of the troposphere beneath. Commercial passenger jets fly in the lower stratosphere, partly because this less-turbulent layer provides a smoother ride.

The jet stream flows near the border between the troposphere and the stratosphere. Above the stratosphere is the mesosphere. It extends upward to a height of about 85 km 53 miles above our planet. Most meteors burn up in the mesosphere. Unlike the stratosphere, temperatures once again grow colder as you rise up through the mesosphere. The layer of very rare air above the mesosphere is called the thermosphere.

High-energy X-rays and UV radiation from the Sun are absorbed in the thermosphere, raising its temperature to hundreds or at times thousands of degrees.