Earth's atmosphere, cutaway Earth globe. Computer graphic of an Earth globe centred on the Atlantic Ocean and a cutaway atmosphere, generated using satellite and mapping data. The data combines cloud-free satellite images of the land and sea surface in natural colour, including digital terrain data. showing the thin layer of the Earth's atmosphere. Overlying this is satellite-based cloud cover observations, with a segment of the atmosphere removed over the northern and central Atlantic Ocean, western Europe, north-west Africa, northern South America and the east coast of North America. Most of the atmosphere is in a layer 16 kilometres thick.