Vertical Structure

As we said earlier, each layer of the atmosphere has distinct characteristics. There are 5 main layers within the atmosphere, which we will discuss in turn. They are the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere, and the exosphere.

Note that there is a division between each of the layers, which is named by the first part of the lower layer (i.e. "tropo" for troposphere) followed by "pause". For example, the tropopause is that area between the troposphere and the stratosphere. The graphic above shows each of these areas as being at a fixed location (for example, the tropopause is shown at about 11 km), but they vary depending on a variety of meteorological conditions. For example, the meteorological chart at right (click to see full-sized) shows that the tropopause is located about 315 mb, or at a height of about 8500 m (8.5 km).

We know that this is the tropopause because this is where the temperature is changing from decreasing to increasing. If you notice the first graphic, temperature decreases with height in the troposphere, increases with height in the stratosphere, and decreases with height in the mesosphere. We'll look at these charts in great detail in the meteorology course!