Exosphere

From Glossary of Meteorology



exosphere

The outermost, or topmost, portion of the atmosphere.

Its lower boundary is the critical level of escape, usually located at 500–1000 km above the earth's surface. In the exosphere, the air density is so low that the mean free path of individual particles depends upon their direction with respect to the local vertical, being greatest for upward moving particles. It is only from the exosphere that atmospheric gases can, to any appreciable extent, escape into outer space.
See cone of escape, fringe region.


Retrieved from "https://glossarystaging.ametsoc.net/w/index.php?title=Exosphere&oldid=17902"
Powered by MediaWiki
Powered by WikiTeq
Powered by Semantic MediaWiki
Copyright 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS). For permission to reuse any portion of this work, please contact permissions@ametsoc.org. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code § 107) or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S.Copyright Act (17 USC § 108) does not require AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a website or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, require written permission or a license from AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy statement.