Atmospheric Mixed Layer Formation
The atmospheric mixed layer results from convective air motions, typically seen towards the middle of the day when air at the surface is warmed and rises. It is thus mixed by Rayleigh–Taylor instability. The standard procedure for determining the mixed layer depth is to examine the profile of potential temperature, the temperature which the air would have if it were brought to the pressure found at the surface. As this such an increase of pressure involves compressing the air, the potential temperature is higher than the in-situ temperature, with the difference increasing as one goes higher in the atmosphere. The atmospheric mixed layer is defined as a layer of (approximately) constant potential temperature, or a layer in which the temperature falls at a rate of approximately 10 °C/km. Such a layer may have gradients in the humidity, but is generally free of clouds. As is the case with the ocean mixed layer, velocities will not be constant throughout the atmospheric mixed layer.
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