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For typical well-mixed structures, the dominant processes are:

Representative temperatures must specify the level: Earth has about $288\mathrm{K}$ at the surface (about $255\mathrm{K}$ effective emission temperature); Jupiter has about $165\mathrm{K}$ near one bar (about $125\mathrm{K}$ effective temperature); hot Jupiters commonly have photospheric temperatures of order $1000$–$2500\mathrm{K}$; and the Sun's photosphere is about $5800\mathrm{K}$. Upper layers, nightsides, deep interiors and the solar corona have different temperatures. These are characteristic values, not constant temperatures throughout each atmosphere.

The tropopause is the transition between the lower, often convecting troposphere and the more stably stratified atmosphere above, where the decrease of temperature with altitude weakens or reverses. Its definition concerns the thermal profile, not a fixed universal altitude. An optical depth is a dimensionless path-integrated extinction, ${\tau }_{\nu }=\int {\kappa }_{\nu }\rho ds$ for mass extinction coefficient ${\kappa }_{\nu }$; without emission into the ray its direct intensity is attenuated by $e^{-{\tau }_{\nu }}$.

In hydrostatic equilibrium, the upward pressure force balances weight:The second equality uses the ideal gas law with specific gas constant $R_a$. For constant $T$ and $g$,For variable temperature the corresponding result is $p(z)=p(z_0)\exp [-{\int }_{z_0}^{z}g/(R_{a}T(z^{\prime }))d{z}^{\prime }]$. The fixed-temperature derivative does not require the entire column to be isothermal.

An upper atmospheric region above the tropopause in which shortwave heating can produce an atmospheric thermal inversion. Ozone on Earth, and methane and aerosols on giant planets, are examples of absorbers that help heat it. Its positive altitude temperature gradient makes it stable against homogeneous-gas thermal convection.

The lower part of a planetary atmosphere where temperature generally decreases outward and convection can carry intrinsic or surface heat. Its upper boundary is a tropopause. Stellar irradiation, composition gradients and clouds affect the extent of this region; pressure alone does not universally identify it.