ATOC 1050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Evaporation, Heat Capacity, Wind Chill
6 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Temperature: a quantity that describes how warm or cold an object is with respect to some standard measure. It can also be described as the average speed of atoms or molecules in a substance (measure of kinetic energy) Nighttime cooling: radiational cooling: both the ground and the air cool by radiation infrared energy. The ground is a better radiator than the air and therefore cools more quickly: after sunset, the ground is colder than the air above. Ideal conditions for a strong inversion: a calm night ( no wind, a long night (winter, the air is dry (low relative humidity, no clouds. Clouds and atmospheric temperature: clouds can have a cooling or warming effect during the day and a warming effect at night. Topographic influences-nighttime cooling: the coldest air is found at the bottom of the valley because cold air is denser than warm air. Because of this gravity causes it to settle in the valley.
