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The density of air or atmospheric density, denoted ρ, [1] is the mass per unit volume of Earth's atmosphere. Air density, like air pressure, decreases with increasing altitude. It also changes with variations in atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity.
The density altitude is the altitude relative to standard atmospheric conditions at which the air density would be equal to the indicated air density at the place of observation. In other words, the density altitude is the air density given as a height above mean sea level .
at each geopotential altitude, where g is the standard acceleration of gravity, and R specific is the specific gas constant for dry air (287.0528J⋅kg −1 ⋅K −1). The solution is given by the barometric formula. Air density must be calculated in order to solve for the pressure, and is used in calculating dynamic pressure for moving vehicles.
Comparison of the 1962 US Standard Atmosphere graph of geometric altitude against air density, pressure, the speed of sound and temperature with approximate altitudes of various objects. [ 1 ] The U.S. Standard Atmosphere is a static atmospheric model of how the pressure , temperature , density , and viscosity of the Earth's atmosphere change ...
= molar mass of Earth's air: 0.0289644 kg/mol The value of subscript b ranges from 0 to 6 in accordance with each of seven successive layers of the atmosphere shown in the table below. The reference value for ρ b for b = 0 is the defined sea level value, ρ 0 = 1.2250 kg/m 3 or 0.0023768908 slug/ft 3 .
If the entire mass of the atmosphere had a uniform density equal to sea-level density (about 1.2 kg/m 3) from sea level upwards, it would terminate abruptly at an altitude of 8.50 km (27,900 ft). Air pressure actually decreases exponentially with altitude, for altitudes up to around 70 km (43 mi; 230,000 ft), dropping by half every 5.6 km ...
(The total air mass below a certain altitude is calculated by integrating over the density function.) For the ocean example there was a sharp transition in density at the top or "surface" of the ocean. However, for atmospheres made of gas there is no equivalent sharp transition or edge.
These figures should be compared with the temperature and density of Earth's atmosphere plotted at NRLMSISE-00, which shows the air density dropping from 1200 g/m 3 at sea level to 0.125 g/m 3 at 70 km, a factor of 9600, indicating an average scale height of 70 / ln(9600) = 7.64 km, consistent with the indicated average air temperature over ...