Convective Instability
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Convective Instability
In meteorology, convective instability or stability of an air mass refers to its ability to resist vertical motion. A ''stable'' atmosphere makes vertical movement difficult, and small vertical disturbances dampen out and disappear. In an ''unstable'' atmosphere, vertical air movements (such as in orographic lifting, where an air mass is displaced upwards as it is blown by wind up the rising slope of a mountain range) tend to become larger, resulting in turbulent airflow and convective activity. Instability can lead to significant turbulence, extensive vertical clouds, and severe weather such as thunderstorms. Mechanism Adiabatic cooling and heating are phenomena of rising or descending air. Rising air expands and cools due to the decrease in air pressure as altitude increases. The opposite is true of descending air; as atmospheric pressure increases, the temperature of descending air increases as it is compressed. Adiabatic heating and adiabatic cooling are terms used to des ...
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Copyright Status Of Works By The Federal Government Of The United States
A work of the United States government is defined by the United States copyright law, as "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties".: "A 'work of the United States Government' is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties." Under section 105 of the Copyright Act of 1976,. such works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under U.S. law and are therefore in the public domain. This act only applies to U.S. domestic copyright as that is the extent of U.S. ''federal'' law. The U.S. government asserts that it can still hold the copyright to those works in other countries. Publication of an otherwise protected work by the U.S. government does not put that work in the public domain. For example, government publications may include works copyrighted by a contractor or grantee; copyrighted material assigned to the U.S. Government; o ...
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Lapse Rate
The lapse rate is the rate at which an atmospheric variable, normally temperature in Earth's atmosphere, falls with altitude. ''Lapse rate'' arises from the word ''lapse'' (in its "becoming less" sense, not its "interruption" sense). In dry air, the adiabatic lapse rate (i.e., decrease in temperature of a parcel of air that rises in the atmosphere without exchanging energy with surrounding air) is 9.8 °C/km (5.4 °F per 1,000 ft). The saturated adiabatic lapse rate (SALR), or moist adiabatic lapse rate (MALR), is the decrease in temperature of a parcel of water-saturated air that rises in the atmosphere. It varies with the temperature and pressure of the parcel and is often in the range 3.6 to (2 to ), as obtained from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The environmental lapse rate is the decrease in temperature of air with altitude for a specific time and place (see below). It can be highly variable between circumstances. Lapse rate corresponds to the vertic ...
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Atmospheric Thermodynamics
Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-Work (physics), work transformations (and their reverse) that take place in the Earth's atmosphere and manifest as weather or climate. Atmospheric thermodynamics use the laws of classical thermodynamics, to describe and explain such phenomena as the properties of moist air, the formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorology, and vertical instabilities in the atmosphere. Atmospheric thermodynamic diagrams are used as tools in the forecasting of storm development. Atmospheric thermodynamics forms a basis for cloud microphysics and convection parametrization (climate), parameterizations used in numerical weather models and is used in many climate considerations, including convective-equilibrium climate models. Overview The atmosphere is an example of a non-equilibrium system. Atmospheric thermodynamics describes the effect of buoyant forces that cause the rise of less dense (warmer) air, the descent of more d ...
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Conditional Symmetric Instability
Conditional symmetric instability, or CSI, is a form of convective instability in a fluid subject to temperature differences in a uniform rotation frame of reference while it is thermally stable in the vertical and dynamically in the horizontal (inertial stability). The instability in this case develop only in an inclined plane with respect to the two axes mentioned and that is why it can give rise to a so-called "slantwise convection" if the air parcel is almost saturated and moved laterally and vertically in a CSI area. This concept is mainly used in meteorology to explain the mesoscale formation of intense Rainband, precipitation bands in an otherwise stable region, such as in front of a warm front. The same phenomenon is also applicable to oceanography. Principle Hydrostatic stability An air particle at a certain altitude will be stable if its adiabatically modified temperature during an ascent is equal to or cooler than the environment. Similarly, it is stable if its temperat ...
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