The terrestrial atmosphere has regions with opposite signs of the atmospheric lapse rate: the troposphere usually cools upward, the stratosphere warms upward through ultraviolet heating, the mesosphere cools, and the thermosphere warms. A monotone atmospheric pressure-temperature profile can approximate one such interval, but cannot describe all their transitions with one fixed branch.
The thermosphere is a high atmospheric region where absorption of energetic stellar radiation can produce an upward-rising kinetic temperature. Its very low density distinguishes kinetic temperature from a large thermal energy content.
The mesosphere lies above the stratosphere and below the thermosphere. Its typical terrestrial temperature decreases upward.
The terrestrial stratosphere lies above the troposphere and has an upward-warming region associated with ultraviolet heating by the ozone layer.
The troposphere is the lowest main layer of the terrestrial atmosphere, with weather and generally decreasing temperature with altitude. Local inversions and moist convection complicate a single lapse-rate description.
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