An Introduction to Atmospheric Structure
This picture shows the cloud produced by a volcano. The cloud rose all the way into the stratosphere. Along the way it encountered a boundary which caused it to flatten out. This flattening can clearly be seen in the picture. The boundary the cloud encountered may be the tropopause.
This picture illustrates the fact that there are distinct layers or regions to the atmosphere. The regions are called the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. Then there is the ionosphere which is the region of the atmosphere that is filled with charged particles.
This is an image of a cloud from a volcanic eruption which
traveled from the troposphere to the stratosphere.
Click on image for full size version (92K GIF)
Image from: National Geographic magazine
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Last modified February 23, 1996 by the Windows Team
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