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Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-work transformations (and their reverse) that take place in the Earth's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate. . Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics, to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air, the formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorology, and ...
This temperature inversion is the opposite of what is normally the case; air is usually warmer close to the surface, and cooler higher up. In calm weather, a layer of significantly warmer air can rest over colder dense air, forming an atmospheric duct which acts like a refracting lens, producing a series of both inverted and erect images.
The atmosphere of Earth is composed of a layer of gas mixture that surrounds the Earth's planetary surface (both lands and oceans), known collectively as air, with variable quantities of suspended aerosols and particulates (which create weather features such as clouds and hazes), all retained by Earth's gravity.
For a given medium at a given frequency, the opacity has a numerical value that may range between 0 and infinity, with units of length 2 /mass. Opacity in air pollution work refers to the percentage of light blocked instead of the attenuation coefficient (aka extinction coefficient) and varies from 0% light blocked to 100% light blocked:
Kramers' opacity law describes the opacity of a medium in terms of the ambient density and temperature, assuming that the opacity is dominated by bound-free absorption (the absorption of light during ionization of a bound electron) or free-free absorption (the absorption of light when scattering a free ion, also called bremsstrahlung). [1]
The moist static energy is a thermodynamic variable that describes the state of an air parcel, and is similar to the equivalent potential temperature. [1] The moist static energy is a combination of a parcel's enthalpy due to an air parcel's internal energy and energy required to make room for it, its potential energy due to its height above the surface, and the latent energy due to water ...
Atmospheric convection is the vertical transport of heat and moisture in the atmosphere.It occurs when warmer, less dense air rises, while cooler, denser air sinks. This process is driven by parcel-environment instability, meaning that a "parcel" of air is warmer and less dense than the surrounding environment at the same altitude.
The result is an equilibrium condition where temperature and pressure are maintained in a balance. However, in cases where the opacity increases with temperature, the atmosphere becomes unstable against pulsations. [2] If a layer of a stellar atmosphere moves inward, it becomes denser and more opaque, causing heat flow to be checked.