Layers of the atmosphere – temperature, pressure and composition with height
GeographyWeather & ClimateAges 15–16
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Launch a weather balloon or a sounding rocket up through the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere. The probe logs temperature, pressure and ozone at each height in a table, and the graph shows temperature falling, rising, falling and rising again with height, while pressure roughly halves every 5.5 km. The atmosphere column marks where weather, airliners, the ozone layer, meteors and aurorae occur, and a bar shows the composition of the air at the chosen height. Switch between tropical, mid-latitude and polar air to move the tropopause, or remove ozone to see why the stratosphere warms and how much more UV reaches the ground.
Lesson: Structure of the atmosphere: layers, temperature and pressure profiles, composition of air and the role of the ozone layer
What it shows
The atmosphere is divided into layers by how temperature changes with height. In the troposphere air is heated from the ground, so it cools by about 6.5 °C per kilometre; almost all water vapour and weather are here. In the stratosphere ozone absorbs ultraviolet light and warms the air up to about 0 °C near 50 km. The mesosphere cools again to about −90 °C, and in the thermosphere the very thin air is heated by X-rays and extreme UV. The profiles follow the US Standard Atmosphere 1976; pressure comes from hydrostatic balance. The no-ozone case is a simplified illustration.
How to use
Press Launch probe to send a weather balloon (it bursts at about 30–33 km) or a sounding rocket (to the top of the graph); each kilometre adds a row to the table and a point to the graph. Drag up and down on the picture, or use the Altitude slider, to read temperature, pressure, density, ozone and composition at any height. Change Latitude, Ozone amount, Graph and Height range, then try the three tasks.
Parameters you can change
- Latitude (type of atmosphere) Mid-latitude (standard atmosphere), Tropical, Polar
- Ozone amount compared with today 0–100 %
- Height range shown 0–120 km, 0–600 km
- Graph Temperature, Pressure, Ozone
- Altitude of the probe 0–600 km
- Probe Weather balloon, Sounding rocket
- Show clouds, aircraft, meteors and aurorae
Questions to explore
- Why does the temperature rise with height in the stratosphere but fall with height in the troposphere?
- About what percentage of sea-level pressure is left at the height of the tropopause?
- Why would a thermometer in the thermosphere not feel hot, even though the gas there is above 500 °C?
