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Atmospheric instability is a condition where the Earth's atmosphere is considered to be unstable and as a result local weather is highly variable through distance and time. [ clarification needed ] [ 1 ] Atmospheric instability encourages vertical motion, which is directly correlated to different types of weather systems and their severity.
The negatively buoyant energy exerted on an air parcel is a result of the air parcel being cooler (denser) than the air which surrounds it, which causes the air parcel to accelerate downward. The layer of air dominated by CIN is warmer and more stable than the layers above or below it. The situation in which convective inhibition is measured is ...
The no-slip condition is an empirical assumption that has been useful in modelling many macroscopic experiments. It was one of three alternatives that were the subject of contention in the 19th century, with the other two being the stagnant-layer (a thin layer of stationary fluid on which the rest of the fluid flows) and the partial slip (a finite relative velocity between solid and fluid ...
Depending on the size of the velocity difference and the size of the density contrast between the layers, Kelvin-Helmholtz waves can look different. For instance, between two layers of air or two layers of water, the density difference is much smaller and the layers are miscible; see black-and-white model video.
More simply, the speed of sound is how fast vibrations travel. At 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound in air, is about 343 m/s (1,125 ft/s; 1,235 km/h; 767 mph; 667 kn), or 1 km in 2.91 s or one mile in 4.69 s. It depends strongly on temperature as well as the medium through which a sound wave is propagating.
Balanced-flow schematisations can be used to estimate the wind speed in air flows covering several degrees of latitude of Earth's surface. However, in this case assuming a constant Coriolis parameter is unrealistic, and the balanced-flow speed can be applied locally. See Rossby waves as an example of when changes of latitude are dynamically ...
High convective instability can lead to severe thunderstorms and tornadoes as moist air which is trapped in the boundary layer eventually becomes highly negatively buoyant relative to the adiabatic lapse rate and escapes as a rapidly rising bubble of humid air triggering the development of a cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud.
The log wind profile is generally considered to be a more reliable estimator of mean wind speed than the wind profile power law in the lowest 10–20 m of the planetary boundary layer. Between 20 m and 100 m both methods can produce reasonable predictions of mean wind speed in neutral atmospheric conditions.