Abstract
ONE would naturally expect the upper part of any large mass of fluid to be the warmer, because that condition is a possible one, whereas the converse is not possible as a permanent condition, since it involves a warmer, and therefore in general a lighter, portion of the fluid remaining under a heavier. But when dealing with a gas it is necessary to use the term “warmer” in a special sense, for which the convenient expression “potentially warmer” has been used. This means that the temperature is referred to some standard pressure, and taken as what it would be after adiabatic reduction to that pressure. In this sense the air gets rapidly warmer as we ascend, at the rate of about 0°.4 C. to each 100 metres, but if there were sufficient mixing we should expect to find the same potential temperature throughout, just as in a pond the heavier water is found at the bottom, but in a fast-running stream the specific gravity and the temperature are the same throughout.
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DINES, W. The Isothermal Layer of the Atmosphere . Nature 77, 486 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/077486a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/077486a0
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