Background Information
- Convection is heat transfer through fluids; conduction is heat transfer through solids; radiation is heat transfer through empty space
- Convection occurs in the atmosphere when there is instability or a large temperature difference between surface air and air aloft
- Thermals or parcels of warm air rise up when the environment is unstable; they will continue to rise until they reach the environmental temperature and condense
- Rate of change of the temperature with height follows the adiabatic lapse rate
- Moist adiabatic lapse rate is smaller than dry, because the parcel cools slower due to the release of latent heat
- Level of free convection - level in the atmosphere where the air parcel, after being lifted, becomes warmer than the air surrounding it
- Convective clouds (e.g. cumulus) form when these parcels contain moisture and condense
- (Kushnir, 2000)
- (Ahrens, 2015)