The _______ is located immediately below the stratopause

Air Density, Pressure, Temperature, and Heat Transfer
Subject
Science

Question Description
Lab 8 – Air Density, Pressure, Temperature, and Heat Transfer

Please make your answers highlighted in yellow.

Air Density and Air Pressure

The atmosphere is made up of a mixture of several gases - though it is mostly nitrogen and oxygen - and is held to the Earth by the force of gravity. Because a gas is compressible, gravity pulls most of the gas molecules close to the surface of the Earth. This implies that the weight of the air overhead is greatest at the Earth's surface, and this weight decreases with height. Another way of stating this fact is to say that the density of the atmosphere decreases with height where density in this context is defined as the mass (measured in grams or kilograms) of the air contained in a unit volume (measured in cubic centimeters or cubic meters). At sea level air has an average density of about 1.2 kg per cubic meter.

It should be pointed out that there is no clear "top" of the atmosphere since it would be difficult to find a level above the Earth where there are no gas molecules of any kind. Even in interstellar space, hydrogen gas molecules can be found. But for all practical purposes the "top" of the Earth's atmosphere can be considered to be within the first 100 kilometers of the surface, which is about 62 miles.

There is a useful rule of thumb that states the following: for every 5.6 kilometers you rise into the atmosphere, there is half of the atmosphere above you than where you started. Thus, for example, if you started at 2 km above sea level and then went up to 7.6 km, then there would only be half as much atmosphere above your head at 7.6 km compared to how much was above your head when you started at 2 km above sea level.

Complete the following table by indicating the percentage of atmosphere above each of the altitudes shown using the approximation that for every 5.6 km you go up into the atmosphere, the percentage of the atmosphere still above you is half of where you started.
With this in mind go back to your original graph on the previous page, and now add a pressure scale directly beneath your percentage scale on the x-axis, and include the pressure readings from 0 mb to 1000 mb. 0 mb would, of course, be the top of the atmosphere, and 1000 mb would be at sea level.