What is the troposphere?

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the troposphere is the first major atmospheric layer

What is the troposphere?

The troposphere is the lowest major atmospheric layer, and is located from the Earth's surface up to the bottom of the stratosphere. It has decreasing temperature with height (at an average rate of 3.5 degrees F per thousand feet (6.5 degrees C per kilometer); whereas the stratosphere has either constant or slowly increasing temperature with height. The troposphere is where all of Earth's weather occurs. The thin layer that divides the troposphere from the stratosphere is called the "tropopause", located at an altitude of around 5 miles in the winter, to around 8 miles high in the summer, and as high as 11 or 12 miles in the deep tropics. When you see the top of a thunderstorm flatten out into an anvil cloud, like in the illustration above, it is usually because the updrafts in the storm are "bumping up against" the bottom of the stratosphere.

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