stratosphere

Meaning

Noun

• Collectively, those layers of the Earth’s crust which primarily comprise stratify deposit.
• The region of the uppermost atmosphere where temperature increases along with the altitude due to the absorption of solar ultraviolet radiation by ozone. The stratosphere extends from the tropopause (10–15 kilometers) to approximately 50 kilometers, where it is succeeded by the mesosphere.

Origin

• From French stratosphère, a word coined by its discoverer, meteorologist Léon Teisserenc de Bort. See strato- + -sphere.