I’m chillin’ in the stratosphere,
The cold breeze blowin’ by my ear,
Ask me what I’m doing here,
I’m checking out Earth’s atmosphere!
My fear is falling far you see,
That’s a doozie down for me!
The stratosphere’s at quite a height,
Fear of falling? Ya’ got that right!
Fast airplanes flying fro and to,
Smooth for aircraft and their crew,
Stratospheric air? Less dense!
So flying here makes lots of sense!
Then I know this funny guy,
Tells me birds come here to fly…
Swans, and vultures, bar-head geese,
Seen soaring stratospheric peace…
Some snowy summit’s make the scene,
Straddling the seam between,
The tropo, and the stratosphere,
Mt. Everest’s peak pops way up here*…
And temps, they rise, as we fly higher,
But always cold, so beware flyer,
It’s never hot, I’m cold, I’m sneezing,
Temps below the point that’s freezing…
Sailing through the stratosphere,
Falling’s what I really fear,
Earth is small, she’s so far down,
20 miles to the ground…
The stratosphere is the second layer of the Earth’s atmosphere.
It is situated just above the troposphere, and just below the mesosphere.
The stratosphere is between 10–13 km (30,000–40,000 ft; 6–8 mi) and 50 km (160,000 ft; 31 mi) above the Earth. It occurs at lower altitudes at the poles.
In the stratosphere, temperatures get warmer as altitude increases (in the troposphere temperatures get lower as altitude increases).
The important ozone layer (helps block dangerous UV rays from the sun) is found in the stratosphere.
Commercial aircraft typically cruise in the stratosphere where the cool temperatures and low air density enable better fuel economy. Also, the stratosphere has less air turbulence than the mesosphere, so it can offer a smoother ride.
Although it is not common, some birds can fly in the lower levels of the stratosphere.
*At 29, 029 feet, some say the summit of Mt. Everest is the only land on Earth that protrudes into the stratosphere.