U.S. Standard Atmosphere


The U.S. Standard Atmosphere is a static atmospheric model of how the pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity of the Earth's atmosphere change over a wide range of altitudes or elevations. The model, based on an existing international standard, was first published in 1958 by the U.S. Committee on Extension to the Standard Atmosphere, and was updated in 1962, 1966, and 1976. It is largely consistent in methodology with the International Standard Atmosphere, differing mainly in the assumed temperature distribution at higher altitudes.
Image:Atmospheric composition Langley.svg|thumb|250px|Visualization of composition by volume of Earth's atmosphere. Water vapor is not included, as this is highly variable. Each tiny cube has one millionth of the volume of the entire block. Data is from .

Methodology

The USSA mathematical model divides the atmosphere into layers with an assumed linear distribution of absolute temperature T against geopotential altitude h. The other two values are computed by simultaneously solving the equations resulting from:
at each geopotential altitude, where g is the standard acceleration of gravity, and Rspecific is the specific gas constant for dry air.
Air density must be calculated in order to solve for the pressure, and is used in calculating dynamic pressure for moving vehicles. Dynamic viscosity is an empirical function of temperature, and kinematic viscosity is calculated by dividing dynamic viscosity by the density.
Thus the standard consists of a tabulation of values at various altitudes, plus some formulas by which those values were derived.
To allow modeling conditions below mean sea level, the troposphere is actually extended to, where the temperature is, pressure is, and density is.

1962 version

The basic assumptions made for the 1962 version were:
This is the most recent version and differs from previous versions only above 51 km:

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