Which of the following atmospheric layers is characterized by a continuous decrease in temperature with height and contains approximately 85 percent of the total mass of the atmospheric gases?

💡 Solution & Explanation

The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, extending from the surface up to about eight kilometers at the poles and eighteen kilometers at the equator, where temperature decreases uniformly with increasing altitude at the normal lapse rate. Other layers like the stratosphere exhibit temperature increases due to ozone absorption, while the mesosphere and thermosphere lie much higher with vastly different thermal profiles. Understanding atmospheric stratification is essential for analyzing weather phenomena and climatic patterns across different global regions.