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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.
Specific humidity is the ratio of water vapor mass to total moist air parcel mass. Humidity plays an important role for surface life. For animal life dependent on perspiration (sweating) to regulate internal body temperature, high humidity impairs heat exchange efficiency by reducing the rate of moisture evaporation from skin surfaces.
This scaled quantity is known as virtual temperature, and it allows for the use of the dry-air equation of state for moist air. [5] Temperature has an inverse proportionality to density. Thus, analytically, a higher vapor pressure would yield a lower density, which should yield a higher virtual temperature in turn.
When the air is cooled below the dew point, its moisture capacity is reduced and airborne water vapor will condense to form liquid water known as dew. [2] When this occurs through the air's contact with a colder surface, dew will form on that surface. [3] The dew point is affected by the air's humidity. The more moisture the air contains, the ...
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 .
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 ...
The LCL can be either computed or determined graphically using standard thermodynamic diagrams such as the skew-T log-P diagram or the tephigram.Nearly all of these formulations make use of the relationship between the LCL and the dew point, which is the temperature to which an air parcel needs to be cooled isobarically until its RH just reaches 100%.
The Arden Buck equations are a group of empirical correlations that relate the saturation vapor pressure to temperature for moist air. The curve fits have been optimized for more accuracy than the Goff–Gratch equation in the range −80 to 50 °C (−112 to 122 °F).