MET-1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Lapse Rate, Fluid Parcel, Rain Shadow

• School: FSU
• Department: Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science
• Course: MET-1010
• Professor: Aaron Preston

Document Summary

This warming offsets some of the cooling. The air now cools at a lesser rate than the dry adiabatic lapse rate. If there is more water in the air,there is more potential for condensation. Need to compare the following: actual environmental lapse rate. Stable: environmental lapse rate <10*c/km (becomes colder than the environment) Unstable: environmental lapse rate >10*c/km (becomes warmer than the environment) The parcel at the surface is what we know based on theoretical equations. The stratus (thin) clouds- not much vertical extent. The lower relapse rate, the more likely is to be stable. Small temperature change between the surface and the air above it. Lapse rate is always defined by a decrease in temperature. A negative lapse rate is stable which means that temperature is increasing with height (temperature inversion) The atmosphere becomes more stable overnight because of cold surface air overnight. The greater the cloud coverage, the less stable.