Up, Up and Away From Skyscrapers to Outer Space How high are satellites, clouds, and the world's tallest trees and buildings? How high do jets, hot air balloons, migrating birds and butterflies fly? On the highest wall you can find, make a model of the earth's atmosphere to scale. Using altitudes provided on the list below, start on the ground and go to the edge of outer space. (If you can't find a wall tall enough, make a "zoomed in" version for events close to the ground, using a larger scale. Label the scale for your readers.) This lesson provides great practice for converting from English to Metric measurements, too. English Units Metric Units Altitude of Various Familiar Things 517 miles   Orbiting NOAA-15 satellite (used for tracking earth?s weather and wildlife migration, too.) 250-435 miles   Our atmosphere?s exosphere (outer space begins at upper level) 30-50 miles   Our atmosphere?s mesosphere 65,000 ft   High altitude record of hot air baloom (1988, Lindstrand) 63,360 ft   Twelve miles high 11-30 miles   Our atmosphere?s stratosphere (Contains the ozone layer.) 6-11 miles   Our atmosphere?s troposphere (Contains most of our weather.) 60,000 ft   Tops of the highest cumulonimbus clouds (?thunderheads?), which may poke into the lower stratosphere from a base only a few thousand feet above the ground! 58,080 ft   Eleven miles high 54,000 ft   Only 1% as much oxygen as at sea level 55,000 ft   Cruising altitude of the Concorde jet 52,800 ft   Ten miles high 47,520 ft   Nine miles high 42,240 ft   Eight miles high 36,960 ft   Seven miles high 36,000 ft   Only 10% as much oxygen as at sea level 36,000 ft   Cruising altitude of a passenger jet 31680 ft   Six miles high 29,028 ft   Highest mountain in the world (Mt. Everest) 29,000 ft   Bar-headed geese seen and heard crossing Himalayas from India to central Asia 26,400 ft   Five miles high 21,120 ft   Four miles high 21,000 ft   Mallard duck once struck by a commercial airliner over the Nevada desert 20,000 ft   High clouds (cirrocumulus, cirrus) bases found above this altitude 20,000 ft   Middle cloud (altocumulus, altostratus) bases found below this altitude 20,000 ft   Radar echoes show some migration at this altitude (few songbirds, more shorebirds) 20,032 ft   Highest mountain in North America (Mt. McKinley) 20-40,000 ft   Jet stream, the river of upper altitude, high speed winds 15840 ft   Three miles high 18,000 ft   Only 50% as much oxygen as at sea-level 11,000 ft   Monarch butterfly seen during fall migration by glider pilot 10,560 ft   Two miles high 10,000 ft   99% of bird migration occurs below this altitude (all species) 10,000 ft   Bald eagles known to have flown this maximum height 6,500 ft   Low cloud bases (cumulus, stratus, stratocumulus) found below this altitude 6,500 ft   Upper height of daytime ?boundary layer? (the lowest layer of the troposphere?s two layers) due to thermals. 5,280 ft   One mile high 5,000 ft   Only 10% of bird migration (all species) occurs at higher altitude 5-6,000 ft   Typical maximum height of thermals in North America (although can range higher in spring and fall) 3,230 m   Elevation of Monarch Butterfly sanctuary in Mexico (El Rosario sanctuary). 2-4,000 ft   The bulk of songbird migration occurs at this altitude. The maximum height is evidently limited by ambient air temperature (> -2C), not by low oxygen levels. 2,720 ft   The world's tallest humanmade structure (Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates) is 2,720 ft (828 m) tall. It opened on January 4, 2010. 2,000 ft   Average maximum altitude of hot air balloon flight 2,000 ft   Two-thirds of all bird-aircraft collisions occur below this altitude 1,483 ft   Height of Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) 1,454 ft   Height of the Sears Tower in Chicago, USA) 600-900 ft   Between sunset and dawn, when nocturnal migrants fly, our atmosphere?s ?boundary layer? (the lowest layer of the troposphere?s two layers) is lower, cooler, and more stable than during daytime due to thermals. 500 ft   Except during migration, most birds fly below this level. 367 ft   The tallest living tree 151 ft   Height of the Statue of Liberty 0 ft   Fog is defined as a low stratus cloud with a base on the ground. When fog lifts, it becomes a true stratus cloud. Facebook Pinterest Twitter © 1997 – 2019 Journey North. All rights reserved.