GEOG220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Thermometer, Kelvin, Lapse Rate
28 Jul 2018
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Document Summary
Troposphere: this where humans live, temperatures decreases with height (moving away from the surface), ends at about 6 miles (10 km) at the tropopause (end of troposphere), 99% of weather takes place here. Stratosphere: temperature is steady then increases with height, ozone reaches a maximum here. Thermosphere: temperature increases height, little heat content in the upper atmosphere because there"s so few. The vertical variation of temperature in the atmosphere is very important, so important that is given a special name, the lapse rate. A normal lapse rate is one in which temperature decreases with height. If the air temperature increases with height we say that an inversion is taking place. Formulas to get down: force = (mass)x(acceleration); f = ma, pressure = force/area, density = mass/volume. Atmospheric pressure is simply the force exerted by the atmosphere on some specific area. At the earth"s surface 1 m3 of the atmosphere has a mass of about 1 kg (2. 2 lbs)
