stratospheres

Noun

stratosphere (plural stratospheres)

1. The region of the uppermost atmosphere where the temperature increases along with the altitude due to the absorption of solar ultraviolet radiation by ozone.
   • Variation in height of the stratosphere (isothermal layer).1909, Scientific Abstracts, A., volume 12, page 208 (heading)
2. (obsolete) Collectively, those layers of the Earth’s crust which primarily comprise stratified deposits.
   • So great is the part played by stratified deposits in the structure of the earth’s crust that we might be tempted to speak of the stratosphere of the earth in contradistinction to the scoriosphere of the moon.1908, Eduard Suess [aut.], Hertha Beatrice Coryn Sollas and William Johnson Sollas [trs.], The Face of the Earth (Oxford, at the Clarendon Press), volume 3, chapter 1, page 2