Flashcards: Atmospheric thermodynamics

Temperature measurement describes the process of measuring a current local temperature for immediate or later evaluation.

The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, commonly known as air, that surrounds the planet Earth and is retained by Earth's gravity.

Atmospheric pressure, sometimes also called barometric pressure, is the pressure exerted by the weight of air in the atmosphere of Earth (or that of another planet).

Dew point is the highest temperature at which airborne water vapor will condense to form liquid dew.

Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air.

Standard conditions for temperature and pressure are standard sets of conditions for experimental measurements to be established to allow comparisons to be made between different sets of data.

The troposphere is the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere, and is also where all weather takes place.

A hygrometer /haɪˈɡrɒmᵻtər/ is an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the atmosphere.

In thermodynamics, an adiabatic process is one that occurs without transfer of heat or matter between a thermodynamic system and its surroundings.

A radiosonde is a battery-powered telemetry instrument package carried into the atmosphere usually by a weather balloon that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them by radio to a ground receiver.

Thermodynamic diagrams are diagrams used to represent the thermodynamic states of a material (typically fluid) and the consequences of manipulating this material.

The mesopause is the temperature minimum at the boundary between the mesosphere and the thermosphere atmospheric regions.

An atmospheric sounding is a measurement of vertical distribution of physical properties of the atmospheric column such as pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind direction (thus deriving wind shear), liquid water content, ozone concentration, pollution, and other properties.

The International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) is an atmospheric model of how the pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity of the Earth's atmosphere change over a wide range of altitudes or elevations.

Freezing, or solidification, is a phase transition in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered below its freezing point For most substances, the melting and freezing points are the same temperature; however, certain substances possess differing solid–liquid transition temperatures.

Water vapor, water vapour or aqueous vapor, is the gaseous phase of water.

Atmospheric temperature range is the numerical difference between the minimum and maximum values of temperature observed in a given location during a period of time (e.g., in a given day, month, year, century) or the average (average of all temperature ranges in a period of time).

The U.S. Standard Atmosphere is an atmospheric model of how the pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity of the Earth's atmosphere change over a wide range of altitudes or elevations.

In thermodynamics, the volume of a system is an important extensive parameter for describing its thermodynamic state.

The wet-bulb temperature is the temperature a parcel of air would have if it were cooled to saturation (100% relative humidity) by the evaporation of water into it, with the latent heat being supplied by the parcel.

Atmospheric instability is a condition where the Earth's atmosphere is generally considered to be unstable and as a result the weather is subjected to a high degree of variability through distance and time.

Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth's atmosphere.