Earth's atmosphere structure

    Caption: Earth's atmosphere structure: The US Standard Atmosphere (US, 1962) runs of density, pressure, sound speed, and Temperature with altitude (geometric altitude, NOT geopotential altitude). The zero-point for altitude is NOT sea level???, but 611 m below sea level to allow for dry land below sea level.

    The US Standard Atmosphere is similar to the International Standard Atmosphere. Both are sort of global average models of the Earth's atmosphere.

    The plot also shows the approximate altitudes for various objects.

    Atmosphere Layers and Objects:

    1. atmosphere layers and boundaries (pauses) with altitudes relative to sea level:
      1. troposphere (surface to average altitude ∼ 13 km), tropopause.
      2. stratosphere (fiducial altitude range ∼ 13--50 km), stratopause.
      3. ozone layer (altitude ∼ 15--35 km).
      4. ionosphere (altitude range ∼ 48--965 km), ionosphere D layer (altitude range ∼ 48--90 km).
      5. mesosphere (fiducial altitude range 50--80 km), mesopause.
      6. thermosphere (fiducial altitude range 80--500 km), thermopause.
      7. Karman line (100 km): Defined boundary of outer space.
      8. low Earth orbit: A practical lower limit may be altitude ∼ 200 km, but below ∼ 300 km orbits have rapid orbital decay due to air drag (see Wikipedia: Low Earth orbit: Orbital characteristics).
      9. exosphere, Earth's exosphere, Earth's exosphere lower boundary (AKA exobase, altitude 500 to 1000 km depending on solar activity) Earth's exosphere upper boundary (altitude ∼ 200,000 km ≅ 30 Earth equatorial radii).
    2. Burj Khalifa (height from ground 0.8298 km, height above sea level ∼ 0.845 km).
    3. Mount Everest (height above sea level 8.84886 km).
    4. typical airliner.
    5. Concorde.
    6. Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.
    7. NASA X-43, NASA X-43A.
    8. weather balloon.
    9. meteor.
    10. aurora.

    Credit/Permission: © User:Cmglee, 2011 / CC BY-SA 3.0.
    Local file: local link: atmosphere_structure.html.
    Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Comparison US standard atmosphere 1962.svg.
    File: Earth atmosphere file: atmosphere_structure.html.