When I drive to Medina, about 12 miles from my home, it takes about 15 minutes. During the drive, I sometimes think about what it would be like to be driving straight upward into the earth’s atmosphere. When I think about the fact that in the equivalent of one-half of my 12-mile drive, I would leave the first layer of our atmosphere called the troposphere. What happens in this narrow troposphere is nearly all weather, clouds and 99% of all water vapor. Six miles strikes me as not very far considering it takes about five-tosix minutes to drive that distance. By the time ...