The boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere is called the "tropopause". Skip to main content. More about Layers of the Atmosphere. Explore the Troposphere. Water vapor concentration varies from trace amounts in Polar Regions to nearly 4 percent in the tropics.
Most prevalent gases are nitrogen 78 percent and oxygen 21 percent , with the remaining 1- percent consisting of argon,. Temperature and water vapor content in the troposphere decrease rapidly with altitude. Water vapor plays a major role in regulating air temperature because it absorbs solar energy and thermal radiation from the planet's surface. Water vapor concentrations vary with latitudinal position north to south. Carbon dioxide is present in small amounts, but its concentration has nearly doubled since Like water vapor, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which traps some of the Earth's heat close to the surface and prevents its release into space.
Scientists fear that the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide could raise the Earth's surface temperature during the next century, bringing significant changes to worldwide weather patterns. Such changes may include a shift in climatic zones and the melting of the polar ice caps, which could raise the level of the world's oceans.
The uneven heating of the regions of the troposphere by the sun the sun warms the air at the equator more than the air at the poles causes convection currents, large-scale patterns of winds that move heat and moisture around the globe. This convection goes hand in hand with the formation of clouds, the so-called convective clouds.
Furthermore, the troposphere is protected from the hard ultraviolet radiation of the Sun by the higher layers of the atmosphere , namely by the stratospheric ozone layer. Because of this protection, many molecules are more stable in the troposphere then elsewhere in the atmosphere. This protection makes life possible on Earth. Troposphere, why is it an important atmospheric layer?
Way up. After that, the atmosphere blends into space. Trace amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and neon are some of the other gases that make up the remaining 0.
The atmosphere is divided into five different layers, based on temperature. The troposphere is thickest at the equator, and much thinner at the North and South Poles. The majority of the mass of the entire atmosphere is contained in the troposphere—between approximately 75 and 80 percent. Temperatures in the troposphere decrease with altitude. It reaches from the top of the troposphere, which is called the tropopause, to an altitude of approximately 50 kilometers 30 miles. Temperatures in the stratosphere increase with altitude.
A high concentration of ozone, a molecule composed of three atoms of oxygen, makes up the ozone layer of the stratosphere. This ozone absorbs some of the incoming solar radiation, shielding life on Earth from potentially harmful ultraviolet UV light, and is responsible for the temperature increase in altitude.
The top of the stratosphere is called the stratopause. Temperatures decrease in the mesosphere with altitude. The thermosphere is located above the mesopause and reaches out to around kilometers miles.
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