Eddy diffusion in the context of "Laminar flow"

The homosphere is the layer of an atmosphere where the bulk gases are homogeneously mixed due to turbulent mixing or eddy diffusion. The bulk composition of the air is mostly uniform so the concentrations of molecules are the same throughout the homosphere. The top of the homosphere is called the homopause, also known as the turbopause. Above the homopause is the heterosphere, where diffusion is faster than mixing, and heavy gases decrease in density with altitude more rapidly than lighter gases.

Some of the processes driving this uniformity include heating convection and air flow patterns. In the troposphere, rising warm air replaces higher cooler air which mix gases vertically. Wind patterns push air across the surface mixing it horizontally. At higher altitudes, other atmospheric circulation regimes exist, such as the Brewer-Dobson circulation in the terrestrial stratosphere, which mixes the air. In Earth's mesophere, atmospheric waves become unstable and dissipate, creating turbulent mixing of this region.

The turbopause, also called the homopause, marks the altitude in an atmosphere below which turbulent mixing dominates. Mathematically, it is defined as the point where the coefficient of Eddy diffusion is equal to the coefficient of molecular diffusion. Because the molecular diffusion coefficient is dependent on both the composition of the diffusing molecule and the background gas, the turbopause altitude will be different for the different molecular species in an atmosphere. For example, in hydrogen (H₂) dominated atmospheres, the helium (He) and methane (CH₄) turbopause altitudes are different as a result of the different binary diffusion coefficients of helium and methane in molecular hydrogen.

The region below the turbopause is known as the homosphere, where the atmosphere is well mixed for chemical species which have long mean residence times. Highly reactive chemicals tend to have variable concentration throughout the atmosphere, while unreactive species have more homogeneous concentrations. The region above the turbopause is the heterosphere, where molecular diffusion dominates and the chemical composition of the atmosphere varies according to chemical species and their atomic weight.