Final answer:
As we go farther away from Earth, the atmosphere becomes thinner, with each successive layer having a lower density of gases. The air density and temperature decrease as we move through the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere.
Step-by-step explanation:
As we go farther away from Earth, the atmosphere gets thinner and less dense. Earth's atmosphere is composed of various layers, starting with the troposphere, where we live and where most weather events originate. As we ascend through this layer, the air density and temperature decrease significantly. The next layers include the stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and the exosphere, which is the furthest away and where the atmosphere merges into space. Each successive layer has a lower density of gases; the exosphere has so few atoms that it can nearly be considered a vacuum.
Interestingly, when compared to the tenuous gas found in interstellar space, even the sparse exosphere contains more atoms in a 1 square meter vertical column stretching from the ground to space than a similar column extending to the edge of the observable universe. This illustrates just how quickly atmospheric density diminishes with altitude.
Additionally, the presence of greenhouse gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide is significantly reduced as we move away from the surface, affecting the absorption of infrared light and the thermal profile of our planet.