Cause of Instability
See also: Lapse rateWhether or not the atmosphere has stability depends partially on the moisture content. In a very dry troposphere, temperature decreases with height less than 9.8C per kilometer ascent indicate stability, while greater changes indicate instability. This lapse rate is known as the dry adiabatic lapse rate. In a troposphere which is completely moist, temperature decreases with height less than 6C per kilometer ascent indicate stability, while greater changes indicate instability. In the range between 6C and 9.8C temperature decreases per kilometer ascent, the term conditionally unstable is used.
Read more about this topic: Atmospheric Instability
Famous quotes containing the word instability:
“The difference between tragedy and comedy is the difference between experience and intuition. In the experience we strive against every condition of our animal life: against death, against the frustration of ambition, against the instability of human love. In the intuition we trust the arduous eccentricities we’re born to, and see the oddness of a creature who has never got acclimatized to being created.”
—Christopher Fry (b. 1907)