Atmosphere of Earth (see the temperature section, below). Because the general pattern of the temperature/altitude profile is constant and measurable by means of instrumented balloon soundings, the temperature behavior provides a useful metric to distinguish atmospheric layers. In this way, Earth's atmosphere can be divided (called atmospheric stratification) into five main layers. Excluding the exosphere, the atmosphere has four primary layers, which are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere. From highest to lowest, the five main layers are: The exosphere is the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere (i.e. the upper limit of the atmosphere). It extends from the exobase, which is located at
Computation of radiowave attenuation in the atmosphere recommendations is available for download and is available to the public. The document ITU-R P.676-8 of the ITU-R section considers the atmosphere as being divided into spherical homogeneous layers; each layer has a constant refraction index. By the use of trigonometry, a couple of formulas and an algorithm were derived. Through the use of an invariant, the same results can be directly derived: An incident ray at A under the angle Φ hits the layer B at the angle "θ". From basic Euclidean geometry: By Snell's law: so that Notes: The ITU recommended algorithm consists of launching a ray from