Atmosphere The lower atmosphere also typically contains a boundary between two distinct regions (the troposphere and stratosphere), but that boundary (the tropopause) displays quite different behavior. However, atmospheric thermoclines, or inversions, can occur, e.g. as nighttime cooling of the Earth's surface produces cold, dense, often calm air adjacent to the ground. The coldest air is next to the ground, with  air temperature increasing with height. At the top of this nighttime boundary layer (which may be only a hundred meters ) the normal adiabatic temperature profile of the troposphere (i.e. temperature decreasing with altitude) is again observed. The thermocline or inversion layer occurs where the temperature profile changes from positive to negative with increasing height. The stability of the night time inversion is usually destroyed soon after sunrise as the sun's energy warms the ground, which  warms the air in the inversion layer. The warmer, less dense air then rises,  destroying the stability that characterizes the nightly inversion.
Atmosphere The lower atmosphere also typically contains a boundary between two distinct regions (the troposphere and stratosphere), but that boundary (the tropopause) displays quite different behavior. However, atmospheric thermoclines, or inversions, can occur, e.g. as nighttime cooling of the Earth's surface produces cold, dense, often calm air adjacent to the ground. The coldest air is adjacent to the ground, with the air temperature increasing with height. At the top of this nighttime boundary layer (which may be only a hundred meters thick), the normal adiabatic temperature profile of the troposphere (i.e. temperature decreasing with altitude) is again observed. The thermocline or inversion layer occurs where the temperature profile changes from positive to negative with increasing height. The stability of the night-time inversion is usually destroyed soon after sunrise as the sun's energy warms the ground, which in turn warms the air in the inversion layer. The warmer, less dense air then rises, thereby destroying the stability that characterizes the nightly inversion.
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