In school for a couple of weeks we have been about the weather. A couple of days ago we learned about the layers of the atmosphere. There are four main and important layers of the atmosphere. The names of those layers are:troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere and the thermosphere. The troposphere is the most lowest layer of the atmosphere and the most closest to the earth. This is where most of the weather occurs and most of the clouds are here. The troposphere is 12-15 km above the ground. The second layer that is the closest to the ground is the stratosphere. The lower part of the stratosphere is VERY cold but the temperature gets warmer and warmer as you reach the top because that's where the ozone layer is. The stratosphere extends from the top of the troposphere to 50 km above ground. The third layer that is closest to the ground is the mesosphere. The mesosphere is the coldest layer of the atmosphere with temperatures near -90 degrees Celsius and protects the earth from meteors. The mesosphere rises from about 50 km to 80 km above ground. The outer most layer of the atmosphere is the thermosphere. The thermosphere has no definite end. It just keeps going and going and going. It is broken up into two layers called the ionosphere and the exosphere. In the ionosphere gas molecules are electrically charged and all the satellites are in the exosphere. Here is a diagram that show all the layer of the atmosphere: (if you click on it, it will enlarge!)
If you want to learn more about the atmosphere you can go to this website: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmos/layers.htm