Download Layers of the Atmosphere

Layers of the Atmosphere
Check your JIGSAW!
Do you have all of these facts?
Troposphere
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Tropo = turning or changing
0 to 12 km from earth’s surface
Where weather occurs
We live here.
Contains almost all of the mass of the
atmosphere.
6. As altitude increase temperature
decreases
Ozonosphere
1. Ozone = O3
2. Ozone is produce
by lightning
3. 90% of ozone is in
the stratosphere
4. Protect the earth
from UV rays from
the sun.
Stratosphere
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Strato = spread out
From the top of
troposphere to 50 km.
As altitude increase,
temperature increases.
Contains the ozone
layer
Planes fly here to avoid
weather
Mesosphere
1. Meso = middle
2. 50 – 80 km above earth’s surface
3. As altitude increase, temperature
decrease.
4. Meteorites burn up in the mesosphere –
leaving a shooting star
Thermosphere
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Divided into two
sections
Begins at 80 km from
the earth’s surface
Ends in outer space
Therm – heat
As altitude increases,
temp. increases
Air is very thin –
molecules spread out
Ionosphere
1. 80 to 550 km
2. Energy from the sun causes gas
molecules to have a charge + or –
3. Aurora Borealis occur here. Particles
from the sun enter near the poles. (See
Magnetosphere)
How Auroras are caused:
• Charged particles from the sun interact
with the earth’s magnetic field
• The particles (or ions) enter the
atmosphere near the poles
• The ions smash into the air molecules
• The air molecules release energy from the
crash as light
• Northern Hemisphere – Northern Lights
• Southern Hemisphere – Aurora Australis
Aurora Borealis
Exosphere
1. Exo = Outer
2. 2nd layer of the
thermosphere
3. 550 km above earth
to outer space
4. Satellites orbit here
Magnetosphere
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The earth acts as a
large magnet
All magnetic objects
produce invisible lines
of force and creates
charged molecules
Earth’s magnetic line
run from North to South
Pole
The magnetic field
stops solar winds
The charged molecules
create auroras in the
ionosphere