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Environmental 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 the sense of a gradual fall. In dry air, the adiabatic lapse rate is 9.8 °C/km (5.4 °F per 1,000 ft). It corresponds to the vertical component of the spatial gradient of temperature. Although this concept is most often applied to the Earth's troposphere, it can be extended to any gravitationally supported parcel of gas. Definition A formal definition from the ''Glossary of Meteorology'' is: :The decrease of an atmospheric variable with height, the variable being temperature unless otherwise specified. Typically, the lapse rate is the negative of the rate of temperature change with altitude change: :\Gamma = -\frac where \Gamma (sometimes L) is the lapse rate given in units of temperature divided by units of altitude, ''T'' is temperature, and ''z'' is altitude. Convection and adiabatic expansion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tatra Rysy 5
Tatra may refer to: * Tatra Mountains, a mountain range in Slovakia and Poland ** Tatra County, an administrative division of Poland in the region of the Tatra Mountains ** Tatra National Park, Poland, a national park in Poland ** Tatra National Park, Slovakia, a national park in Slovakia * Low Tatras, a mountain range in Slovakia * "Tatra Tiger", the nickname for the economy of Slovakia during its high growth period since 1998 * Tatra (company), a car and truck manufacturer from the Czech Republic * ČKD Tatra, a producer of trams from the Czech Republic * Tatra, Estonia, a village in Tartu County, Estonia * Tátra-class destroyer, a torpedo boat class of the Austro-Hungarian Navy * Tatra pine vole, a species of vole * FK Tatra Kisač, a football club in Serbia * Tatra, a Czech brand of milk produced in Hlinsko Hlinsko () is a town in Chrudim District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,400 inhabitants. It is the natural centre of a microregion called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenhouse Effect
The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when energy from a planet's host star goes through the planet's atmosphere and heats the planet's surface, but greenhouse gases in the atmosphere prevent some of the heat from returning directly to space, resulting in a warmer planet. Earth's natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it possible and carbon dioxide plays a significant role in providing for the relatively high temperature on Earth. The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary atmosphere warms the planet's surface beyond the temperature it would have in the absence of its atmosphere.A concise description of the greenhouse effect is given in the ''Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report,'' "What is the Greenhouse Effect?FAQ 1.3 – AR4 WGI Chapter 1: Historical Overview of Climate Change Science, IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Chapter 1, p. 115: "To balance the absorbed incoming olarenergy, the Earth m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Condensation
Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor to liquid water when in contact with a liquid or solid surface or cloud condensation nuclei within the atmosphere. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition. Initiation Condensation is initiated by the formation of atomic/molecular clusters of that species within its gaseous volume—like rain drop or snow flake formation within clouds—or at the contact between such gaseous phase and a liquid or solid surface. In clouds, this can be catalyzed by water-nucleating proteins, produced by atmospheric microbes, which are capable of binding gaseous or liquid water molecules. Reversibility scenarios A few distinct reversibility scenarios emerge here with respect to the n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. High concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evaporation, such as when humidity affects rate of evaporation of water. When the molecules of the liquid collide, they transfer energy to each other based on how they collide. When a molecule near the surface absorbs enough energy to overcome the vapor pressure, it will escape and enter the surrounding air as a gas. When evaporation occurs, the energy removed from the vaporized liquid will reduce the temperature of the liquid, resulting in evaporative cooling. On average, only a fraction of the molecules in a liquid have enough heat energy to escape from the liquid. The evaporation will continue until an equilibrium is reached when the evaporation of the liquid is equal to its condensation. In an enclosed environment, a liquid will evaporate until the surrounding air is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermal Conduction
Conduction is the process by which heat is transferred from the hotter end to the colder end of an object. The ability of the object to conduct heat is known as its ''thermal conductivity'', and is denoted . Heat spontaneously flows along a temperature gradient (i.e. from a hotter body to a colder body). For example, heat is conducted from the hotplate of an electric stove to the bottom of a saucepan in contact with it. In the absence of an opposing external driving energy source, within a body or between bodies, temperature differences decay over time, and thermal equilibrium is approached, temperature becoming more uniform. In conduction, the heat flow is within and through the body itself. In contrast, in heat transfer by thermal radiation, the transfer is often between bodies, which may be separated spatially. Heat can also be transferred by a combination of conduction and radiation. In solids, conduction is mediated by the combination of vibrations and collisions of molecul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropopause
The tropopause is the atmospheric boundary that demarcates the troposphere from the stratosphere; which are two of the five layers of the atmosphere of Earth. The tropopause is a thermodynamic gradient-stratification layer, that marks the end of the troposphere, and lies approximately above the equatorial regions, and approximately above the polar regions. Definition Rising from the planetary surface of the Earth, the tropopause is the atmospheric level where the air ceases to become cool with increased altitude, and becomes dry, devoid of water vapor. The tropopause is the boundary that demarcates the troposphere from the stratosphere, and is the part of the atmosphere where there occurs an abrupt change in the environmental lapse rate (ELR), from a positive rate in the troposphere to a negative rate in the stratosphere. The ELR indicates the lowest level at which the lapse rate decreases to 2°C/km or less, provided that the average lapse-rate, between that level and all othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supercell Thunderstorms
A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell), supercells are the overall least common and have the potential to be the most severe. Supercells are often isolated from other thunderstorms, and can dominate the local weather up to away. They tend to last 2–4 hours. Supercells are often put into three classification types: classic (Normal precipitation level), low-precipitation (LP), and high-precipitation (HP). LP supercells are usually found in climates that are more arid, such as the high plains of the United States, and HP supercells are most often found in moist climates. Supercells can occur anywhere in the world under the right pre-existing weather conditions, but they are most common in the Great Plains of the United State ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overshooting Top
An overshooting top (or penetrating top) is a dome-like protrusion shooting out of the top of the anvil of a thunderstorm and into the lower stratosphere. When an overshooting top is present for 10 minutes or longer, it is a strong indication that the storm is severe.Chance Hayes, National Weather Service Wichita, Kansas. "Storm Fury on the Plains." Storm Spotter Training. 4H Building, Salina, Kansas. 22 Feb. 2010. Lecture. Formation When a thunderstorm forms, clouds build vertically into the atmosphere until the storm's updraft (warm rising air) has reached an equilibrium level (EL); the point where the surrounding air is about the same temperature or even warmer. This point of equilibrium is often marked by the tropopause. Rather than continuing to rise into the stratosphere, the vertical cloud growth abruptly stops, and instead clouds spread horizontally, forming an "anvil" shape on top of the thunderstorm. An overshooting top forms when a thunderstorm's updraft, due to m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eruption Column
An eruption column or eruption plume is a cloud of super-heated ash and tephra suspended in gases emitted during an explosive volcanic eruption. The volcanic materials form a vertical column or plume that may rise many kilometers into the air above the vent of the volcano. In the most explosive eruptions, the eruption column may rise over , penetrating the stratosphere. Stratospheric injection of aerosols by volcanoes is a major cause of short-term climate change. A common occurrence in explosive eruptions is ''column collapse'' when the eruption column is or becomes too dense to be lifted high into the sky by air convection, and instead falls down the slopes of the volcano to form pyroclastic flows or surges (although the latter is less dense). On some occasions, if the material is not dense enough to fall, it may create pyrocumulonimbus clouds. Formation Eruption columns form in explosive volcanic activity, when the high concentration of volatile materials in the rising mag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratosphere
The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air high in the sky and the cool layers of air in the low sky, close to the planetary surface of the Earth. The increase of temperature with altitude is a result of the absorption of the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation by the ozone layer. The temperature inversion is in contrast to the troposphere, near the Earth's surface, where temperature decreases with altitude. Between the troposphere and stratosphere is the tropopause border that demarcates the beginning of the temperature inversion. Near the equator, the lower edge of the stratosphere is as high as , at midlatitudes around , and at the poles about . Temperatures range from an average of near the tropopause to an average of near the mesosphere. Stratospheric temperatures also vary w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Internal Energy
The internal energy of a thermodynamic system is the total energy contained within it. It is the energy necessary to create or prepare the system in its given internal state, and includes the contributions of potential energy and internal kinetic energy. It keeps account of the gains and losses of energy of the system that are due to changes in its internal state. It does not include the kinetic energy of motion of the system as a whole, or any external energies from surrounding force fields. The internal energy of an isolated system is constant, which is expressed as the law of conservation of energy, a foundation of the first law of thermodynamics. The internal energy is an extensive property. The internal energy cannot be measured directly and knowledge of all its components is rarely interesting, such as the static rest mass energy of its constituent matter. Thermodynamics is chiefly concerned only with ''changes'' in the internal energy, not with its absolute value. Instea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heat Conduction
Conduction is the process by which heat is transferred from the hotter end to the colder end of an object. The ability of the object to conduct heat is known as its ''thermal conductivity'', and is denoted . Heat spontaneously flows along a temperature gradient (i.e. from a hotter body to a colder body). For example, heat is conducted from the hotplate of an electric stove to the bottom of a saucepan in contact with it. In the absence of an opposing external driving energy source, within a body or between bodies, temperature differences decay over time, and thermal equilibrium is approached, temperature becoming more uniform. In conduction, the heat flow is within and through the body itself. In contrast, in heat transfer by thermal radiation, the transfer is often between bodies, which may be separated spatially. Heat can also be transferred by a combination of conduction and radiation. In solids, conduction is mediated by the combination of vibrations and collisions of molecu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
