What Is the Troposphere?
The atmosphere of earth is divided into four layers that are partially based on height, but are also categorized by temperature. The bottom later, or that closest to the earth is called the troposphere. The other layers up from the troposphere are the stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. Some scientists include a fifth category called the exosphere. The lowest level of the atmosphere has a significant effect on people constantly because it is where almost all weather takes place. The troposphere can’t simply be categorized by height, since it can vary in its thickness, and it also changes seasonally in thickness in various locations. Another factor that may change the thickness of this layer is the latitude of a specific place. It can be said that this section of the atmosphere is approximately 7-8 miles in thickness (about 12 km), but it is also generally shallower at the earth’s poles and deepest near the equator. In addition to being responsible for most weather phenomena, th
The troposphere is the lowest major atmospheric layer, and is located from the Earth’s surface up to the bottom of the stratosphere. It has decreasing temperature with height (at an average rate of 3.5 degrees F per thousand feet (6.5 degrees C per kilometer); whereas the stratosphere has either constant or slowly increasing temperature with height. The troposphere is where all of Earth’s weather occurs. The thin layer that divides the troposphere from the stratosphere is called the “tropopause”, located at an altitude of around 5 miles in the winter, to around 8 miles high in the summer, and as high as 11 or 12 miles in the deep tropics. When you see the top of a thunderstorm flatten out into an anvil cloud, like in the illustration above, it is usually because the updrafts in the storm are “bumping up against” the bottom of the stratosphere.
