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ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS AND METEOROLOGY

STABILITY, INVERSION, TURBULENCE

Salvador, Ashley

Atmospheric dynamics is a core component of all atmospheric science curricula. Atmospheric dynamics is the discipline concerned with what different classes of geophysical disturbances are made of, how and why they form, what factors dictate their structure and movement, how the Earth’s uneven surface impacts them, how they eventually decay and, above all, how they collectively constrain the atmospheric general circulation as a whole. Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics, with a major focus on weather forecasting.

The density of an air depends on

temperature

• Increase temperature = less dense

• Decrease temperature = more dense

r = P/(RT)

A hot air balloon is

warmer and less

dense than the

environment and

rises.

STABLE

CONDITIONALLY UNSTABLE

TEMPERATURE

INVERSION

A deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. Surface inversion Upper air inversion Frontal inversion An inversion acts as a cap on the upward movement of air from the layers below.

FRONTAL

INVERSION

Inversions caused by a shallow “cold front” blowing under warmer air. Sometimes you hear about a "cold front" or a "warm front" moving in from somewhere. What this is referring to is when wind is blowing from a cold or warm place, and causing a large pocket of that air, also called an "air mass," to come to where you are.

UPPER AIR

INVERSION

Subsidence Convection and Turbulence

UPPER AIR

INVERSION

Subsidence Convection and Turbulence

• (^) Mechanical turbulence
• (^) Thermal (convective) turbulence

The heating of the day causes convective thermals to rise

UPPER AIR

INVERSION

Subsidence Convection and Turbulence

• (^) Mechanical turbulence
• (^) Thermal (convective) turbulence
• (^) Frontal turbulence