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Geography Atmosphere

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With the aid of a diagram, describe the structure of the atmosphere. (8 marks)

The atmosphere is an area of gases, with some solids and liquids surrounding the earth or another planet. The troposphere is the first layer of gases surrounding the earth which extends 11km from the earth’s surface. In this layer most weather processes take place as well as it having the hottest temperature as solar radiation heats up the earth’s surface.

The second layer is the stratosphere (25-30km), this zone has a steady increase in temperature (temperature inversion) from the ozone layer absorbing the solar radiation which would otherwise be very harmful the humans (e.g. uv).

The layer above the stratosphere is the mesosphere. In the zone of the atmosphere the temperature rapidly decline (-90C) due to the fact there is no water vapour or dust to absorb the radiation. The mesosphere also has very strong winds which can exceed 3,00km/hr.

After the Mesosphere comes the Thermosphere. This layer is named so as there is an increase in temperature resulting from the absorption of UV radiation by atomic oxygen found at this altitude.

The exosphere is the uppermost region of Earth's atmosphere as it gradually fades into the vacuum of space. Air in the exosphere is extremely thin - in many ways it is almost the same as the airless void of outer space where molecules are gravitationally bound to that body, but where the density is too low for them to behave as a gas by colliding with each

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