Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere varying in altitude from approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) at the poles to approximately 18 kilometers (11 miles) at the equator.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The zone of transition between the troposphere and the stratosphere (approximately 13 kilometers). The tropopause normally occurs at an altitude of between 25,000 and 45,000 feet in polar and temperate zones. It occurs at 55,000 feet in the tropics.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the region of discontinuity between the troposphere and the stratosphere

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

tropo- (“troposphere”) + -pause (“discontinuance”).

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Examples

  • Getting beyond the tropopause is a trick for us, but molecules manage to bumble their way beyond it anyway without our help.

    Archive 2009-04-01 doyle 2009

  • Getting beyond the tropopause is a trick for us, but molecules manage to bumble their way beyond it anyway without our help.

    The edges of the sea doyle 2009

  • The tropopause is the point of thermal equilibrium between the two and seems that this point would vary in height given a change in the GWP of the atmosphere as would the lapse rate by definition.

    Unthreaded #12 « Climate Audit 2007

  • The tropopause is the “roof of weather”, the top of the weather-containing troposphere.

    Road Map #3 « Climate Audit 2006

  • With the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) warming and the upper atmosphere (the stratophere) cooling, another consequence is the boundary between the troposphere and stratophere, otherwise known as the tropopause, should rise as a consequence of greenhouse warming.

    Climate Progress 2010

  • On Neptune, methane plays the same role as water vapor on Earth: the temperature of the socalled tropopause - a barrier of colder air separating troposphere and stratosphere - determines how much water vapor can rise into the stratosphere.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • The upper boundary of the layer, known as the tropopause, ranges in height from 5 miles (8 km) near the poles up to 11 miles (18 km) above the equator.

    RealClimate 2009

  • It is generally assumed that most of the water vapor found in the stratosphere passes through the tropical tropopause which is the coldest point of the troposphere, into the stratosphere.

    Archive 2010-02-01 EliRabett 2010

  • It is generally assumed that most of the water vapor found in the stratosphere passes through the tropical tropopause which is the coldest point of the troposphere, into the stratosphere.

    Hot Water and Air EliRabett 2010

  • I did ask a few days ago how tropospheric phenomena, like thunderstorms, can heat the upper-atmosphere through convection even though the bouyant energy required to release the latent heat as sensible heat does not make it past the tropopause which is not the upper atmosphere.

    Mann at the NAS Panel « Climate Audit 2006

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