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In meteorology, convective available potential energy (commonly abbreviated as CAPE), [1] is a measure of the capacity of the atmosphere to support upward air movement that can lead to cloud formation and storms.
A Skew-T diagram with important features labeled. Convective inhibition (CIN or CINH) [1] is a numerical measure in meteorology that indicates the amount of energy that will prevent an air parcel from rising from the surface to the level of free convection.
where CAPE stands for the Convective Available Potential Energy, is the CAPE of an air parcel lifted from saturation at sea level in reference to the environmental sounding, is the CAPE of the boundary layer air, and both quantities are calculated at the radius of maximum wind. [5]
The main reason that tephigrams are used by the British Met Office, the Meteorological Service of Canada, and Met Éireann (Irish Meteorological Service) is the property that areas contained by the curves have equal energies for equal areas, leading to better comparisons of CAPE and hence convective systems.
CAPE is an upper limit for an ideal undiluted parcel, and the square root of twice the CAPE is sometimes called a thermodynamic speed limit for updrafts, based on the simple kinetic energy equation. However, such buoyant acceleration concepts give an oversimplified view of convection.
The lifted index (LI) is the temperature difference between the environment Te(p) and an air parcel lifted adiabatically Tp(p) at a given pressure height in the troposphere (lowest layer where most weather occurs) of the atmosphere, usually 500 hPa . The temperature is measured in Celsius.
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Diagram showing an air parcel path when raised along B-C-E compared to the surrounding air mass Temperature (T) and humidity (Tw); see CAPE. The level of free convection (LFC) is the altitude in the atmosphere where an air parcel lifted adiabatically until saturation becomes warmer than the environment at the same level, so that positive buoyancy can initiate self-sustained convection.