Atmosphere

Foldable

Todays Learning Targets:

1. Summarize information from charts and graphs
regarding layers of the atmosphere

Atmo Basics
Oxygen and Nitrogen make up 99% of our
atmosphere.
Nitrogen makes up 78%!
The remaining 1% is made up of carbon dioxide,
argon, hydrogen, water vapor and other gases
Answer in your notebook on your side: How might
that look on a pie graph?

Troposphere
Underneath the flap that says Troposphere
The layer closest to Earths surface. This is the
layer outside.
It contains most of the mass of the atmosphere.
Most weather takes place in and most air
pollution collects in the troposphere.
Air temperature DECREASES with height in the
troposphere

Stratosphere
Up to the next flap, label Stratosphere
The stratosphere, is where most ozone is located.
o Its called stratospheric ozone.

Planes like to fly here because there is less moisture

so less clouds & less weather to jostle the planes.
Air temperature INCREASES with height in the
stratosphere

Side Note
Felix Baumgartner jumps from the stratosphere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOoHArAzdug
Alan Eustace (a google executive) jumped on October
24, 2014 from the Stratosphere and broke the previous
record!

Mesosphere
The mesosphere is the
coldest layer of the
atmosphere.
It has very strong winds.
This is where you would
see meteors shooting
through.
Temperature DECREASES
as you go up in the
Mesosphere

Thermosphere
The thermosphere is the farthest layer from the
surface and it contains the least amount of the
atmospheres mass.
This is the hottest layer because it is closer to the
sun and it absorbs the heat from it.
Temperature INCREASES as you go up in the
thermosphere
Divided into two parts
o Ionosphere: important for radio communications. Also where auroras
occur
o Exosphere: composed of light (in weight) gases so satellites tend to fly
here

Temperature Graph
If we graphed the temperatures, what would they
look like?
We know that the temperature decreases, then
increases, then decreases, then increases again!

Graph