Stratosphere: Home to the Earth’s Ozone Layer The next layer is the stratosphere. This layer is the layer that contains the Earth’sozone layer. Unlike the troposphere, the stratosphere has no turbulence. Unlike the air in the troposphere, the air in the stratosphere gets warmer higher up i...
It goes from the top of the stratosphere to an altitude of about 53 miles. According to NOAA, gases contained in the mesosphere are thick enough to slow down meteors that are flying toward Earth. This burns up the space rocks and results in the shooting stars or fireballs we see here ...
Temperature is the measure of how hot or how cold a body is compared to a certain standard. It is the measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules that make up the body. The most common way to measure the temperature of a body is by using a thermometer. ...
What causes temperature to increase with height in the stratosphere? How have vast forests on Earth influenced the greenhouse effect? Where do most greenhouse gas emissions come from? What happens when sunlight hits greenhouse gas molecules?
Once high in the sky in Earth's stratosphere (some six to 30 miles up), sulfur dioxide reacts with atmospheric molecules to produce droplets that can linger for a year or more. And when sunlight hits these droplets, energy is reflected back into space, depriving our planet of substantial ...
used gasses containing CFCs for a long time. They were phased out of aerosol production in 1999 in favor of less harmful hydrocarbon alternatives. However, since CFC molecules have a lifetime of 20 to 100 years in the stratosphere, the damage done in previous decades continues to make an ...
The ozone molecules in the stratosphere and the troposphere are chemically identical. However, they have very different roles in the atmosphere and very different effects on humans and other living beings, depending on their location. A useful statement summarizing ozone's different effects is that...
Scientists measure the ozone layer in Dobson units, which is the number of ozone molecules it takes to make a layer 0.01 millimeters thick. The average thickness of the ozone layer is 300 Dobson units, or about 3 millimeters. That isn't very thick – it's about the thickness of three pe...
Officially namedpolar stratospheric clouds, this natural event only happens when the temperature above the Arctic Circle falls below minus 114 degrees F, causing widely spaced water molecules to blend and form ice crystals in the otherwise dry stratosphere. High-altitude sun rays beam into the ice,...
Venus and Earth: Venus is the second planet from the sun and the Earth is the third. They make look similar from space, but there is a vast difference. Venus is believed to be a prime example of the runaway greenhouse effect, while the Earth is trying to avoid this fate. ...