The Mesosphere

In the Earth's mesosphere, the air is relatively mixed together and the temperature decreases with altitude. The atmosphere reaches its coldest temperature of around -90°C in the mesosphere. This is also the layer in which a lot of meteors burn up while entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The mesosphere is on top of the stratosphere

The upper parts of the atmosphere, such as the mesosphere, can sometimes be seen by looking at the very edge of a planet (see picture to the left).

This is an image which shows the Earth and its atmosphere. The mesosphere would be the dark blue edge on the far right hand side of the image.
Click on image for full size (55K JPEG)
Image courtesy of NASA

Last modified March 27, 1999 by the Windows Team

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