In meteorology, the planetary boundary layer (PBL), also known as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) or peplosphere, is the lowest part of the atmosphere and its behaviour is directly influenced by its contact with a planetary surface. On Earth it usually responds to changes in surface radiative forcing in an hour or less. In this layer physical quantities such as flow velocity, temperature, and moisture display rapid fluctuations (turbulence) and vertical mixing is strong. Above the PBL is the "free atmosphere", where the wind is approximately geostrophic, while within the PBL the wind is affected by surface drag and turns across the isobars.
Depiction of where the planetary boundary layer lies on a sunny day.
The difference in the amount of aerosols below and above the boundary layer is easy to see in this aerial photograph. Light pollution from the city of Berlin is strongly scattered below the layer, but above the layer it mostly propagates out into space.
A shelf cloud at the leading edge of a thunderstorm complex on the South Side of Chicago that extends from the Hyde Park community area to over the Regents Park twin towers and out over Lake Michigan
A planetary surface is where the solid or liquid material of certain types of astronomical objects contacts the atmosphere or outer space. Planetary surfaces are found on solid objects of planetary mass, including terrestrial planets, dwarf planets, natural satellites, planetesimals and many other small Solar System bodies (SSSBs). The study of planetary surfaces is a field of planetary geology known as surface geology, but also a focus on a number of fields including planetary cartography, topography, geomorphology, atmospheric sciences, and astronomy. Land is the term given to non-liquid planetary surfaces. The term landing is used to describe the collision of an object with a planetary surface and is usually at a velocity in which the object can remain intact and remain attached.
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the Moon, which consists of lunar regolith (photographed by Neil Armstrong, July 1969).
Perspective radar view of Titan's Bolsena Lacus (lower right) and other northern hemisphere hydrocarbon lakes
Pluto's Tombaugh Regio (photographed by New Horizons flyby on July 14, 2015) appears to exhibit geomorphological features previously thought to be unique to Earth.
Pebbled plains of Saturn's moon Titan (photographed by Huygens probe, January 14, 2005) composed of heavily compressed states of water ice. This is the only ground-based photograph of an outer Solar System planetary surface