Thermosphere

The thermosphere (literally "heat sphere") is the outer layer of the atmosphere, separated from the mesosphere by the mesopause. Within the thermosphere temperatures rise continually to well beyond 1000C. The few molecules that are present in the thermosphere receive extraordinary amounts of energy from the Sun, causing the layer to warm to such high temperatures. Air temperature, however, is a measure of the kinetic energy of air molecules, not of the total energy stored by the air. Therefore, since the air is so thin within the thermosphere, such temperature values are not comparable to those of the troposphere or stratosphere. Although the measured temperature is very hot, the thermosphere would actually feel very cold to us because the total energy of only a few air molecules residing there would not be enough to transfer any appreciable heat to our skin.

The lower part of the thermosphere, from 80 to 550 km above the Earth's surface, contains the ionosphere. Beyond the ionosphere extending out to perhaps 10,000 km is the exosphere or outer thermosphere, which gradually merges into space.