Stability Flashcards
Stability of an air mass refers to what?
The ability to promote or prevent vertical currents.
Stability of the air depends on the relationship between the T of the rising air and what?
The T of the air through which it is rising.
Rising air cools _______.
Adiabatically
A shallow lapse rate, inversion, isothermal layer and absolute stability have what in common?
They are all stable air.
Steep lapse rate, absolute instability and potential instability have what in common?
They are all unstable
What is conditional stability?
The ELR between dry and saturated adiabatic lapse rates.
What are some ways to modify stability?
low leveling heating/ cooling
Warming at high levels
Cold air moving aloft
Subsidence inversion
What is subsidence inversion?
When air descends in the atmosphere and causes compression warming. (The ELR graph will look like a nose)
Describe visibility, clouds, precipitation, wind and turbulence for stable air.
Poor, layered, continuous, steady and smooth.
Describe visibility, clouds, precipitation, wind and turbulence for unstable air.
Good (except in showers), convective, showery, gusty, rough.
Layered clouds, flat smoke column, poor visibility, fog layers and study winds describe what kind of stability?
Stable air
