8
votes
Accepted
Why is the snow line higher in the Himalayas than on the equator?
The permanent snow line is controlled by summer insolation, and during the summer the insolation is higher at 30°N than at the equator. See this figure from Fundamentals of Physical Geography (...
- 7,729
4
votes
Accepted
Doesn't Increase of Potential Temperature with Height contradict Adiabatic Nature of Processes within Troposphere?
You may be forgetting that pressure also decreases with height (exponentially). Also, because $P=\rho R T$, $\frac{dP}{dT}=\rho R$ (that is, $c_p$ does not appear). But I digress in answering your ...
- 8,684
4
votes
Doesn't Increase of Potential Temperature with Height contradict Adiabatic Nature of Processes within Troposphere?
If we'd be living in a dry atmosphere your reasoning is indeed correct. Air would rise adiabatically and air would loose about 9.8 °C/km (dry adiabatic lapse rate). This means constant potential ...
- 1,145
4
votes
Accepted
UAH and RSS Lower Troposphere data
Firstly, the RSS and UAH datasets do not "line up nearly perfectly", the diagram below shows both products over the last 20 years (which appears to be what this question is actually about) here is the ...
- 1,959
4
votes
Accepted
Remote Sensing System (RSS) historical atmospheric data continually updated
Being remote sensing, algorithms for inverting the raw data to get physical quantities may be improving with time. Perhaps a slight adjustment in algorithm or calibration happened between July and ...
- 1,207
3
votes
Other than the South Pole where is the windless place on Earth?
Truth be told, there is no such place. The atmosphere is a fluid, and a fluid moves. If a fluid did not move, it would not be a fluid.
Proof of concept- If you exhale, the carbon dioxide, water vapor,...
- 8,684
2
votes
Accepted
With respect to latitude and time of year, what geopotential heights are associated with low pressure systems on the North American landmass?
Great question!
First, let's look at typical data: here are the 1981-2010 Reanalysis mean and standard deviation:
So looks like the mean 500 height in September for Wisconsin ranges from about 571-...
- 8,713
2
votes
Accepted
What happens in the upper air when the altitude of the tropopause changes?
Short answer: I think the difference in the 2 soundings can be mostly explained by moving from one air mass (low pressure, relatively humid) to another (high pressure, relatively dry) which also ...
- 360
2
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Why does cold air inflow in high tropospheric layers create a low in the upper troposphere?
You have asked an excellent question. This source was used for the illustrations shown in this answer. The basis for the exam questions may have been an expectation that the prospective pilot would ...
- 21
2
votes
Why doesn't one build pressurized camps at Mount Everest?
The Nepali government is extremely sensitive to the notion of climbing their mountains as "sport" and understand that all elements that undermine the sporting nature of climbing, ...
- 2,783
1
vote
Accepted
Why is the isothermal layer being considered a part of the stratosphere rather than the troposphere or being an independent layer?
This is simply because of the way that the troposphere is defined and the fact that isothermal layers are of constant temperature. The troposphere has one defining characteristic; the air temperature ...
- 4,260
1
vote
Accepted
Other than the South Pole where is the windless place on Earth?
Not just the south pole, but 'Ridge A' and many other parts of the high Antarctic Plateau, at or about 4000 metres altitude, are generally recognized as being the least windy. Otherwise, there are a ...
- 14.2k
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