“The Atmosphere”

by Caleb, KE0FOE

As we continue with our series covering JetStream, The National Weather Service’s new Online School for Weather, the topic this time is: The Atmosphere.

The Atmosphere is an area of gas and suspended solid particles that surrounds the earth and extends from the earth’s surface out several thousand miles into space. It consists of five principal layers: Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere, and Exosphere.

All weather activity takes place within the Troposphere – the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Only the most intense supercell thunderstorms are able to punch through into the next layer up called the Stratosphere.

The outermost layer of the earth’s atmosphere is called the Exosphere. It starts at around 375 miles above the earth’s surface extending out as far as 6,200 miles!

Believe it or not, the Ionosphere is not one of the main layers of our atmosphere. The Ionosphere is simply an area of electrically charged gas particles (or ions) that exist within two different layers of our atmosphere. The Ionosphere can be found as low as around 37 miles above the earth’s surface, which is within the Mesosphere, out to as far as 190 miles above our planet’s surface which is well within the Thermosphere.

There are a lot of amazing facts and projects about earth’s atmosphere that you and your family can discover on the National Weather Service’s new Online School for Weather called JetStream. Visit their website: weather.gov/jetstream