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Adiabatic lapse rate


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atmospheric temperature

...such as temperature or density, with increasing altitude) of temperature decreases at a rate greater than 1 °C per 100 metres (approximately 1 °F per 150 feet). This rate is called the adiabatic lapse rate (the rate of temperature change occurring within a rising or descending air parcel). In the ocean, the temperature increase with depth that results in free convection is...
...in the humid eastern United States—and up to 5 km (3 miles) in the southwestern desert. Under these conditions, when unsaturated air rises and expands, the temperature decreases at the dry adiabatic lapse rate (9.8 °C per kilometre, or roughly 23 °F per mile) throughout most of the boundary layer. Near Earth’s heated surface, air temperature decreases superadiabatically (at a...
...above a relatively warm surface or forced up over mountains—undergoes a reduction of temperature associated with its expansion as the pressure of the overlying atmosphere declines. This is the adiabatic lapse rate of temperature, which equals about 1 °C per 100 metres (about 2 °F per 300 feet) for dry air and 0.5 °C per 100 metres (about 1 °F per 300 feet) for saturated...

relation to lapse rate

...variable, being affected by radiation, convection, and condensation; it averages about 6.5 °C per kilometre (18.8 °F per mile) in the lower atmosphere (troposphere). It differs from the adiabatic lapse rate, which involves temperature changes due to the rising or sinking of an air parcel. Adiabatic lapse rates are usually differentiated as dry or moist.

sound refraction

...heats the Earth and the Earth heats the adjacent air. The heated air then cools as it rises, creating a gradient in which atmospheric temperature decreases with elevation by an amount known as the adiabatic lapse rate. Because sound waves propagate faster in warm air, they travel faster closer to the Earth. This greater speed of sound in warmed air near the ground creates Huygens’ wavelets...

vertical mixing

adiabatic lapse rate
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