8.5 Atmosphere in Convective Equilibrium
The temperature of the atmosphere falls as one rises up in the atmosphere. This is due to the fact that the hot air from the lower level expands as it rises, such expansion being more or less adiabatic.
Consider a mass of air enclosed in a cylindrical space of height dh and unit cross section. Let the pressure at the two faces of the cylinder be p and p + dp, respectively (Fig. 8.3).
Fig. 8.3 Variation of pressure with height
This change in pressure dp is due to the weight of the column of air enclosed in the cylinder so that
The negative sign means that the pressure ...
Get Heat and Thermodynamics now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
