What is a kid friendly definition of ionosphere?

Answer 1

The ionosphere is the part of the earth's atmosphere (the layers of gases that surround the earth and stay there because of the earth's gravity) where sunrays are able to ionize some of the gas substance. This means that the gas substances, because of the high amounts of energy in the sunrays hitting them, lose or gain electrically charged particles (such as electrons, the tiny charged particles orbiting the atom core, or ions, larger, electrically charged particles) and themselves become electrically charged. Electrical charge is responsible for the fundamental force of physics called electromagnetism, which is what creates magnetism and electricity. Because of this electromagnetism in the ionosphere, when large bursts of sunrays hit the atmosphere from time to time the amazing northern lights and southern lights, the auroras, become visible in the far north and far south of our planet.