Air Temperature Change With Altitude

So far we take looked at how pressure and air density alter with increasing altitude. Next we had a quick await at how air temperature changes with altitude. The figure drawn in form has been carve up into ii parts and redrawn for improved clarity.

The atmosphere can be divide into layers depending on whether temperature is increasing or decreasing with increasing altitude. The two lowest layers are shown in the effigy to a higher place. There are boosted layers (the mesosphere and the thermosphere) above l km. You'll discover them discussed in Dr. Ritchies notes but we didn't hash out them in class.

ane. We live in the troposphere. The troposphere is found, roughly, between 0 and about 10 km altitude and is where temperature ordinarily decreases with increasing altitude. [the troposphere is usually a little higher in the tropics and lower at polar latitudes]

The troposphere contains most of the water vapor in the atmosphere (the water vapor comes from evaporation of bounding main water) and is where near of the clouds and weather occurs. The troposphere can be stable or unstable (tropo ways to turn over and refers to the fact that air can motion up and down in the troposphere).

2a.

The thunderstorm shown in the figure indicates unstable weather condition, meaning that stiff up and down air motions are occurring. When the thunderstorm reaches the top of the troposphere, it runs into the bottom of the stratosphere which is a very stable layer. The air tin can't proceed to rise into the stratosphere so the cloud flattens out and forms an anvil (anvil is the name given to the flat top of the thunderstorm). The flat anvil top is something that you can go outside and come across and often marks the top of the troposphere.

2b. The summit of Mt. Everest is a little over 29,000 ft. tall and is close to the acme of the troposphere.

2c. Cruising altitude in a rider jet is usually between thirty,000 and xl,000, near or but above the elevation of the troposphere, and at the bottom of the stratosphere.

Temperature remains constant between 10 and xx km and then increases with increasing altitude between 20 and 50 km. These two sections form the stratosphere. The stratosphere is a very stable air layer. Increasing temperature with increasing altitude is called an inversion. This is what makes the stratosphere and then stable.

4. A kilometer is one thou meters. Since ane meter is nearly 3 anxiety, 10 km is about 30,000 anxiety. There are 5280 feet in a mile then this is nigh 6 miles.

5. Sunlight is a mixture of ultraviolet (7%), visible (44%), and infrared light (49%). We can run into the visible calorie-free.

5a.

On average about 50% of the sunlight arriving at the summit of the atmosphere passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed at the ground (twenty% is absorbed by gases in the air, 30% isreflected dorsum into space). This warms the ground. The air in contact with the basis is warmer than air just above. Every bit you lot go further and farther from the warm grou nd, the air is colder and colder. This explains why air temperature decreases with increasing altitude in the troposphere.

5b.

How do you explain increasing temperature with increasing altitude in the stratosphere.

The ozone layer is found in the stratosphere (peak concentrations are found near 25 km altitude). Absorption of ultraviolet light by ozone warms the air in the stratosphere and explains why the air can warm. The air in the stratosphere is much less dense (thinner) than in the troposphere. And so even though in that location is non very much UV calorie-free in sunlight, information technology doesn't have as much energy to warm this thin air as it would to warm denser air closer to the basis.

6. That 's a manned balloon; Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer are inside. They were to starting time men to travel into the stratosphere in May 1931. It really was quite a daring trip at the fourth dimension at the fourth dimension, and they very nigh didn't survive it. Auguste's son, Jacques, would afterwards descend to the deepest point in the bounding main in a bathyscaph (part of a ii man team). Jacques' son Bertrand was function of the two-man team that start circled the earth non-finish in a balloon (March 1999).