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There is no well-defined upper boundary of the atmosphere (see Figure 3-9). It just gets thinner and thinner and thinner. It’s like the thin skin of a peach — clearly defined on one side where it covers the fruit and then fuzzy on the other.

FIGURE 3-9: Here is a map of the atmosphere’s different layers.

You could say that the atmosphere extends roughly 80 miles up, because a few molecules of the lighter gases like helium and hydrogen are still drifting around up there. But 99 percent of Earth’s sky stuff is below the top of the Stratosphere, 30 miles in the sky, and 80 percent of it is in the lower layer, the 10-mile-thick Troposphere. And as far as weather is concerned, and as far as breathing is concerned, you and I are out of business at the top of the Troposphere.