I heard our atmosphere has layers, is this true?

Question

If so could someone describe and name them for me. Also how thick are these layers and is that what the heat shields on the space shuttle for?

Answer 1

Yes, the atmosphere has layers.

Troposphere: Where virtually all of the weather is. Air gets cooler with increasing altitude. That's because sunlight mostly passes through the air and gets absorbed at the surface and heats the very lowest part of the atmosphere.

Stratosphere:
Air gets warmer with altitude, so it's stratified, no convection. That's because the ultraviolet part of sunlight mostly gets absorbed by the air, so as it comes down through the atmosphere there gets to be less of it there to heat up the air.

Mesosphere:
Temperature increases with altitude. There's not enough air to absorb all that much of the ultraviolet, so the increase in energy input as you go up is outweighed by the decrease in energy loss into the cold darkness of space (at any given temperature). This is the layer in which meteors burn up.

Thermosphere:
Temperature increases with altitude again. I don't know why.

In addition to the layers defined by temperature change, there are a couple of layers defined by other criteria --


Ionosphere:
There's lots of ultraviolet and not very many air molecules, so when an air molecule gets ionized it stays that way for a while before running into another one to react with or a stray electron to absorb.

Exosphere:
Ambiguous whether it's really part of the atmosphere, as particles get interchanged with the solar wind.

Heights are approximate, because they're higher near the equator and change somewhat with the weather. Heights are listed in the wikipedia article:

Answer 2

First Layer is the Troposphere:0-15 km ( p.s. we live in this one most of our lives)
Second Layer is the Stratosphere:15-50 km
Third Layer is the Mesosphere:50-85 km
Ozone is in the Stratosphere
Ozonosphere( in the Stratospere to):15-40 km
In between in mesosphere and the thermosphere is the Ionosphere a.k.a northern lights
Fourth Layer is the Thermosphere:85-500 km
Fith Layer is the Exosphere:500-1000 km

Answer 3

The atmosphere does have layers. Scientists differentiate them b/c their characteristics, such as temperature and composition, differ.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_atmosphere for the details.

The heat shields on the space shuttle are not intended as much to insulate against ambient heat in the atmosphere, but rather against frictional heat generated by the atmosphere "rubbing" against the speeding shuttle as it ascends and descends.

Answer 4

Yes the atmosphere of the earth is in layers.

- Troposphere: it begins at the surface and extends to between 7 km (23,000 ft) at the poles and 17 km (60,000 ft) at the equator,
- Stratosphere: 7 to 17 km (23 – 60,000 ft) range to about 50 km (160,000 ft).
- Mesosphere: from about 50 km (160,000 ft) to the range of 80 to 85 km (265 – 285,000 ft).
- Thermosphere: from 80 – 85 km (265 – 285,000 ft) to 640+ km (400+ mi); This is the edge of space about 100 kilometers high according to the X-Prize standards and international agreement.
- Ionosphere: It is located in the thermosphere and is responsible for auroras.
- Exosphere: from 500 – 1000 km (300 – 600 mi) up to 10,000 km (6,000 mi).

Answer 5

ya it does i don't know all the names be the stratosphere ionosphere. theres alot more i just had a mind blank