upper air

American  

noun

Meteorology.

1. the atmosphere above the lower portion of the troposphere.

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Etymology

Origin of upper air

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

And those wave changes in the upper air knock the polar vortex out of its place and toward the United States, Cohen said.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 16, 2024

But to me, they are creatures of the upper air, and of their nature unintelligible, which makes them more akin to angels.

From New York Times • Jul. 29, 2020

She could see nothing, but heard a distant rumble from the upper air.

From Slate • Jun. 10, 2019

These delightful pieces end up transcending their constraints and become tales of pure information, occupying the rarified upper air where we also find Borges’s “Pierre Menard” and Nabokov’s “Pale Fire.”

From The New Yorker • Jan. 6, 2019

They swam along, Merlyn occasionally advising him to put his back into it when he forgot and the strange underwater world began to dawn about them, deliciously cool after the heat of the upper air.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White