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Atmospheric convection is the vertical transport of heat and moisture in the atmosphere.It occurs when warmer, less dense air rises, while cooler, denser air sinks. This process is driven by parcel-environment instability, meaning that a "parcel" of air is warmer and less dense than the surrounding environment at the same altitude.
Discrete convective cells in the atmosphere can be identified by clouds, with stronger convection resulting in thunderstorms. Natural convection also plays a role in stellar physics. Convection is often categorised or described by the main effect causing the convective flow; for example, thermal convection.
In 1963, Edward Lorenz, with the help of Ellen Fetter who was responsible for the numerical simulations and figures, [1] and Margaret Hamilton who helped in the initial, numerical computations leading up to the findings of the Lorenz model, [2] developed a simplified mathematical model for atmospheric convection. [1]
Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of heat-to-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 ...
Unlike simpler models, GCMs divide the atmosphere and/or oceans into grids of discrete "cells", which represent computational units. Unlike simpler models which make mixing assumptions, processes internal to a cell—such as convection—that occur on scales too small to be resolved directly are parameterised at the cell level, while other ...
In many real-life applications (e.g. heat losses at solar central receivers or cooling of photovoltaic panels), natural and forced convection occur at the same time (mixed convection). [4] Internal and external flow can also classify convection. Internal flow occurs when a fluid is enclosed by a solid boundary such as when flowing through a pipe.
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.
A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. [1] Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example of convection, specifically atmospheric convection.