stratosphere
in between
dark
and light
hot
and cold
higher than breath
lower than dreams
bright blue band
I looked up stratosphere today, I knew it had something to do with layer and sphere… but wanted to be sure. The free Dictionary.com confirmed my fading memories of Greek affixes. I remember when people said “stratosphere” as if it were the ultimate — the biggest and best one can get. When pilots were proud of grazing the stratosphere. The heady days of faster-than-sound flight and new moon landings and talk of colonizing the other planets made up my childhood.
The stratosphere is still there, and the lucky few who make it as far as orbit take pictures where it shows up, brighter than any blue I have seen on earth. I didn’t remember that there is essentially no “weather” in the stratosphere, but Weatherquestions.com has a succinct explanation. Nasa has a short memo from 2003 online that asks, “Whither Comes Weather?” and it reminds me that everything is connected. And if you are really interested in how the stratosphere affects weather, NOAA has a Climate Prediction Center with links to a lot of data!
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