What is the approximate height of the troposphere at the equator?

• The height of the troposphere varies with latitude and season:
-At the equator, it is approximately 18 km due to the intense heating and upward movement of air.
-At the poles, it is much lower, around 8-10 km, because of the colder temperatures and less convection.

🔑Key Points:
Troposphere
-The lowermost layer of the atmosphere with an average height of 13 km (18 km over the equator and 8 km over the poles).
-The air we breathe exists here. Almost all the weather phenomena (like rainfall, fog, clouds, dew, frost and hailstorm) occur in this layer.
-Temperature decreases with increasing height at the rate of 6.5℃ per 1000m. This is called normal lapse rate.
-The height of the troposphere varies from the equator towards the pole (decreases towards the poles) and from one season to another (increases during summer while decreases during winter) during a year.
-The upper limit is called the tropopause which is 1.5 km thick. (The word “troposphere” literally means “zone/region of mixing” and tropopause means “where the mixing stops”).

🛑 Additional Information::
Stratosphere
-Above the troposphere lies the stratosphere. It extends up to a height of 50 km.
-This layer is almost free from clouds and associated weather phenomenon, making conditions most ideal for flying aeroplanes.
-One important feature of the stratosphere is that it contains a layer of ozone gas between the height of 15 to 30 km (also called Ozonosphere).
-Temperature increases with height due to the absorption of UV rays by the ozone layer.
-The upper limit of the stratosphere is known as stratopause.
Mesosphere
-Lying above the stratosphere this is the third layer of the atmosphere and extends between 50 km and 80 km.
-Meteorites burn up in this layer on entering from space.
-Temperature decreases with increasing height again.
-The uppermost limit is the mesopause where the temperature becomes -80℃.
Thermosphere
-Temperature here rises very rapidly with increasing height.
-The International Space Station is situated in this layer.

• It is further divided into two layers:

• Ionosphere:
-It extends between 80 – 400 km.
-This layer helps in radio transmission. In fact, radio waves transmitted from the earth are reflected back to the earth by this layer.
-Includes a number of ionic layers with increasing heights like the D layer, E layer, F layer and G layer.

• Exosphere:
-This is the upper most layer of the atmosphere.
-This layer has very thin air.
-Light gases like helium and hydrogen float into space from here.
-The density here is very low and the atmosphere resembles a nebula because it is highly rarefied.