Atmosphere Weather, Winds etc
My Blogs (olelog) are mainly based on my daily reading of earth science news. Here on whatonearth.olehnielsen.dk I try to weave some of the pieces together to a greater whole with added background info.

  The Atmosphere

Notes:

The layer thicknesses are approxiamte and variable.

The troposphere is the lowest of the Earth's atmospheric layers and is the layer in which all of what we call "weather" occurs. It begins at ground level and ranges in height from an average of 6 km at the poles to 17 km at the equator.

The tropopause is a boundary region in the atmosphere between the troposphere and the stratosphere (approximately between 14 and 18 km above earth surface.

The Ozon layer is approximate situated between 15 and 45 km above the surface.

The stratopause is the level of the atmosphere which is the boundary between two layers, stratosphere and the mesosphere. In the stratosphere the temperature increases with altitude, and the stratopause is the section where a maximum in the temperature occurs.

The mesosphere (from the Greek words mesos = middle and sphaira = ball) is the layer of the Earth's atmosphere that is directly above the stratosphere and directly below the thermosphere. The mesosphere is located about 50-80/85km above Earth's surface. Within this layer, temperature decreases with increasing altitude.

The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation and comprises the thermossphere and the exosphere. it is subdivided into D, E, and F layers

The Van Allen Radiation Belt.

The Intertropical Convergence Zone

The Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, is the region that circles the Earth, near the equator, where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres come together. The intense sun and warm water of the equator heats the air in the ITCZ, raising its humidity and causing it to rise. As the air rises it cools, releasing the accumulated moisture in an almost perpetual series of thunderstorms.

The name “trade winds” derives from the Middle English 'trade', meaning "path" or "track," and thus the phrase "the wind blows trade," that is to say, on track.

Variation in the location of the ITCZ drastically affects rainfall in many equatorial nations, resulting in the wet and dry seasons of the tropics rather than the cold and warm seasons of higher latitudes. Longer term changes in the ITCZ can result in severe droughts or flooding in nearby areas.

This image is a combination of cloud data from NOAA’s newest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-11) and color land cover classification data. The ITCZ is the band of bright white clouds that cuts across the center of the image.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=4028

Last modified on
olehnielsen.dk
If you have any problems with this page or wish to comment on the site, please e-mail the webmaster