Question

How thick is the troposphere?

Answer 1

Hint: Atmosphere is the blanket of air that surrounds our earth. The atmosphere is mostly made up of gases, water vapour and dust. The atmosphere can be broadly divided into five layers based on temperature.

Complete answer: The layers of our atmosphere are troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.
-Troposphere is the first layer of our atmosphere. It contains 99% of water vapour and contains clouds, rains and snow. It contains 75% of the mass of the atmosphere. In this layer the temperature decreases with height from the surface of the earth. In the troposphere, air pressure and density of air also decreases with altitude because of which cabins of flights are pressurized. However flights mostly fly in the stratosphere as there is turbulence in the troposphere due to weather related phenomena. This is the layer where phenomena related to weather mostly occurs.
-The average thickness of the troposphere is 13km, however it is 6km thick in the poles and 18km in the tropics. Lowest part of the troposphere is called boundary layer and it is the area where air’s motion is determined by the properties of the earth’s surface.

Note: The layer between the troposphere and stratosphere is called the tropopause. The stratosphere extends 50km upwards from the troposphere. The mesosphere extends to 85km from the stratosphere and the thermosphere extends to 600km. The last layer of atmosphere is the exosphere and it extends upto 10,000km.