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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapse_rate
Lapse rate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The lapse rate is dened as the rate of decrease with height for an atmospheric variable. The variable involved is temperature unless specied otherwise.[1][2] The terminology arises from the word lapse in the sense of a decrease or decline; thus, the lapse rate is the rate of decrease with height and not simply the rate of change. While most often applied to Earth's atmosphere the concept can be extended to any gravitationally supported ball of gas.
Contents
1 Denition 2 Mathematical denition 3 Types of lapse rates 3.1 Environmental lapse rate 3.2 Dry adiabatic lapse rate 3.3 Saturated adiabatic lapse rate 4 Signicance in meteorology 5 See also 6 External links 7 Additional reading 8 References
Denition
A formal denition from the Glossary of Meteorology[3] is: The decrease of an atmospheric variable with height, the variable being temperature unless otherwise specied. The term applies ambiguously to the environmental lapse rate and the process lapse rate, and the meaning must often be ascertained from the context.
Mathematical denition
In general, a lapse rate is the negative of the rate of temperature change with altitude change, thus:
where is the lapse rate given in units of temperature divided by units of altitude, T = temperature, and z = altitude.
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Note: In some cases, or can be used to represent the adiabatic lapse rate in order to avoid confusion with other terms symbolized by , such as the specic heat ratio[4] or the psychrometric constant.[5]
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PdV = VdP /
the rst law of thermodynamics can be written as
ncvdT Vdp / = 0
Also since : = can show that:
V / n and : = cp / cv we
cpdT dP = 0
where cp is the specic heat at constant pressure and is the specic volume. Assuming an atmosphere in hydrostatic equilibrium:[8]
Emagram diagram showing variation of dry adiabats (bold lines) and moist adiabats (dash lines) according to pressure and temperature
dP = gdz
where g is the standard gravity and is the density. Combining these two equations to eliminate the pressure, one arrives at the result for the DALR,[9] .
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where:
M water vapor R / M = The specic gas constant of a gas, denoted as Rs Rsd = Specic gas constant of dry air = 287 J kg1 K1 constant for water vapor = 0.6220 T = Temperature of the saturated air, K
Signicance in meteorology
The varying environmental lapse rates throughout the Earth's atmosphere are of critical importance in meteorology, particularly within the troposphere. They are used to determine if the parcel of rising air will rise high enough for its water to condense to form clouds, and, having formed clouds, whether the air will continue to rise and form bigger shower clouds, and whether these clouds will get even bigger and form cumulonimbus clouds (thunder clouds). As unsaturated air rises, its temperature drops at the dry adiabatic rate. The dew point also drops (as a result of decreasing air pressure) but much more slowly, typically about 2 C per 1,000 m. If unsaturated air rises far enough, eventually its temperature will reach its dew point, and condensation will begin to form. This altitude is known as the lifting condensation level (LCL) when mechanical lift is present and the convective condensation level (CCL) absent mechanical lift, in which case, the parcel must be heated from below to its convective temperature. The cloud base will be somewhere within the layer bounded by these parameters. The difference between the dry adiabatic lapse rate and the rate at which the dew point drops is around 8 C per 1,000 m. Given a difference in temperature and dew point readings on the ground, one can
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easily nd the LCL by multiplying the difference by 125 m/C. If the environmental lapse rate is less than the moist adiabatic lapse rate, the air is absolutely stable rising air will cool faster than the surrounding air and lose buoyancy. This often happens in the early morning, when the air near the ground has cooled overnight. Cloud formation in stable air is unlikely. If the environmental lapse rate is between the moist and dry adiabatic lapse rates, the air is conditionally unstable an unsaturated parcel of air does not have sufcient buoyancy to rise to the LCL or CCL, and it is stable to weak vertical displacements in either direction. If the parcel is saturated it is unstable and will rise to the LCL or CCL, and either be halted due to an inversion layer of convective inhibition, or if lifting continues, deep, moist convection (DMC) may ensue, as a parcel rises to the level of free convection (LFC), after which it enters the free convective layer (FCL) and usually rises to the equilibrium level (EL). If the environmental lapse rate is larger than the dry adiabatic lapse rate, it has a superadiabatic lapse rate, the air is absolutely unstable a parcel of air will gain buoyancy as it rises both below and above the lifting condensation level or convective condensation level. This often happens in the afternoon over many land masses. In these conditions, the likelihood of cumulus clouds, showers or even thunderstorms is increased. Meteorologists use radiosondes to measure the environmental lapse rate and compare it to the predicted adiabatic lapse rate to forecast the likelihood that air will rise. Charts of the environmental lapse rate are known as thermodynamic diagrams, examples of which include Skew-T log-P diagrams and tephigrams. (See also Thermals). The difference in moist adiabatic lapse rate and the dry rate is the cause of foehn wind phenomenon (also known as "Chinook winds" in parts of North America).
See also
Adiabatic process Atmospheric thermodynamics Fluid mechanics Fluid dynamics Foehn wind
External links
denition, equations and tables of lapse rate (http://pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu /education_and_outreach/encyclopedia/adiabatic_lapse_rate.htm) from the Planetary Data system. National Science Digital Library glossary: Lapse Rate (http://www.nsdl.arm.gov/Library/glossary.shtml#lapse_rate) Environmental lapse rate (http://www.nsdl.arm.gov/Library /glossary.shtml#environmental_lapse_rate) Absolute stable air (http://www.nsdl.arm.gov/Library/glossary.shtml#absolute_stable_air)
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An introduction to lapse rate calculation from rst principles (http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching /sm1/lectures/node56.html) from U. Texas
Additional reading
Beychok, Milton R. (2005). Fundamentals Of Stack Gas Dispersion (4th ed.). author-published. ISBN 0-9644588-0-2. www.air-dispersion.com (http://www.air-dispersion.com) R. R. Rogers and M. K. Yau (1989). Short Course in Cloud Physics (3rd ed.). ButterworthHeinemann. ISBN 0-7506-3215-1.
References
1. ^ Mark Zachary Jacobson (2005). Fundamentals of Atmospheric Modeling (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83970-X. 2. ^ C. Donald Ahrens (2006). Meteorology Today (8th ed.). Brooks/Cole Publishing. ISBN 0-495-01162-2. 3. ^ Todd S. Glickman (June 2000). Glossary of Meteorology (2nd ed.). American Meteorological Society, Boston. ISBN 1-878220-34-9. (Glossary of Meteorolgy) (http://www.ametsoc.org/pubs/glossary_index.html) 4. ^ Salomons, Erik M. (2001). Computational Atmospheric Acoustics (1st ed.). Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 1-4020-0390-0. 5. ^ Stull, Roland B. (2001). An Introduction to Boundary Layer Meteorology (1st ed.). Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-277-2769-4. 6. ^ Adiabatic Lapse Rate, (http://goldbook.iupac.org/A00144.html) IUPAC Goldbook 7. ^ Danielson, Levin, and Abrams, Meteorology, McGraw Hill, 2003 8. ^ Landau and Lifshitz, Fluid Mechanics, Pergamon, 1979 9. ^ Kittel and Kroemer, Thermal Physics, Freeman, 1980; chapter 6, problem 11 (http://books.google.com /books?id=c0R79nyOoNMC&lpg=PP1&dq=Kittel%20and%20Kroemer %2C%20Thermal%20Physics%2C&pg=PA179#v=onepage&q&f=false) 10. ^ Glossary of Meteorology (http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?p=1&query=moistadiabatic+lapse&submit=Search)
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