Layers of Air Above Earth

Earth’s atmosphere is stacked in layers, and each one sits at a different height. The higher you go, the thinner the air becomes, and each layer has its own things happening in it.

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In the picture

The airliner flying among the clouds in the troposphere, the lowest layer, reaching up to about 12 km.
The weather balloon floating in the stratosphere, home of the ozone layer, from about 12 to 50 km.
The burning meteor in the mesosphere, from about 50 to 85 km, where most space rocks burn up.
The space station orbiting in the thermosphere, from about 85 to 600 km, where auroras glow.
The small satellite in the exosphere, the outermost layer, thinning away into space.

Examples

A passenger flight cruising at about 10 km is still inside the troposphere, near the top of the clouds.
A shooting star you spot at night is a speck of dust burning up in the mesosphere.

Key takeaways

From lowest to highest the layers are troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere.
Almost all weather and about three quarters of the air’s mass are in the troposphere.