What is the temperature of the atmosphere? Tom, Burwash School

3/25/2015

Keita Lynch link

3/28/2015 07:31:46 am

My favourite kind of question is one that has more than one answer. Yours happens to be just that.

The atmosphere is actually lots of different temperatures… but how does that work? You may have learned already that the Earth has different layers, just like a huge gobstopper. Well, get this… the atmosphere has layers, too! They're just made out of gases, instead of solids and liquids.

Each of the layers have different temperatures within them. It makes sense to think that the higher you go, the colder it is; because when you hear about people climbing really big mountains, it's always very cold. Well this is true within the first layer of the atmosphere, but higher up it's a different story.

Imagine you are in your very own rocket, taking off from Earth. In order to reach space, you'll have to travel through all four primary layers of the atmosphere.

At the launch pad you'll be in the troposphere. Because it is the layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth, it gets nice and warm near the bottom from the planet's heat. This is the first layer and the one you're breathing in right now.

As you take off and get higher into the sky, outside of your rocket it will be getting colder and colder - just like high up on a mountain. Up here is where all our weather happens, like thunderstorms and snow. After just over 10 miles up you'll pass above the clouds and past the height that aeroplanes fly at. It's about -50°C now… pretty chilly!

It stays cold until you reach the next layer - the stratosphere. You might pass a weather balloon, because this is where they hang out. At about 15 miles up, you'll start to go through an area made of ozone - my favourite part. The ozone protects us on Earth from the Sun's UV radiation. This protective blanket means that the higher you get in the stratosphere, the hotter it gets. This is because ozone is really good at absorbing light from the Sun - just like your duvet is good at keeping you warm.

At nearly 30 miles from the Earth's surface, it goes back up to 0°C - cold compared to what we're used to at home, but pretty hot stuff for way up here! It'll stay this temperature for about 5 miles, but then you'll hit the super chilly layer called the mesosphere. 35 miles from Earth, this layer has no ozone to absorb light to make it warm, so temperatures drop. Zooming further and further up, you're at nearly 40 miles from Earth and it's -100°C… yikes! The mesosphere is also where lots of meteors that are heading for Earth burn up, so keep an eye out for shooting stars.

Further up still at 50 miles, you'll reach the last layer - the thermosphere. This one's quite exciting for a few reasons. Firstly, it's where the northern and southern lights happen. A bit higher at around 200 miles is where the International Space Station orbits the Earth - don't forget to wave 'hello'! In the outer edge of the thermosphere is also where you'll find our GPS satellites that help Sat Navs in cars tell us where to go.

The air up this high isn't very thick at all. This means the oxygen molecules get heated up by the Sun really easily - sometimes reaching 2000°C… yowch! This is the hottest part of the atmosphere, but if you were able to stick your arm out of your rocket, it wouldn't feel hot. How weird is that?! This is because the hot oxygen molecules are extremely far apart from one another, so you'd hardly come into contact with any of them.

OK you're pretty much in space now, so perhaps go check out the Moon but make sure you come back down to Earth!

Why not try making a colourful diagram to show where each of the atmospheric layers are? This video is worth taking a look at too if you'd like to learn more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaikvaAw2nk

Stay curious!

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