Synonyms
Atmospheric chemistry; Atmospheric composition; Middle atmosphere (common term used to refer collectively to the stratosphere and mesosphere)
Definitions
Trace gases. Minor constituents in Earth’s atmosphere typically having abundances from as large as hundreds of parts per million (e.g., CO2) to parts per trillion (e.g., BrO and OH) or less.
Stratosphere. The region of Earth’s atmosphere between ∼15 and ∼50 km characterized by temperatures that generally increase with increasing altitude.
Mesosphere. The region of Earth’s atmosphere between ∼50 km and ∼80 km characterized by temperatures that generally decrease with increasing altitude.
Introduction
Earth’s atmosphere is divided vertically into regions defined by the vertical gradient of temperature. The lowermost region, the troposphere, ranging from the surface to the “tropopause” at 10–15 km altitude, is characterized by temperatures that mainly decrease with increasing altitude. Above is the stratosphere, where...
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Acknowledgment
This research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the NASA.
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Livesey, N. (2014). Trace Gases, Stratosphere, and Mesosphere. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_181
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_181
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