Equivalent potential temperature, commonly referred to as theta-e, is a quantity related to the stability of a column of air in the atmosphere.
is the temperature a parcel of air would reach if all the water vapor in the parcel were to condense, releasing its latent heat, and the parcel was brought adiabatically to a standard reference pressure, usually 1000 hPa (1000 mbar) which is roughly equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level. In stable conditions, increases with altitude. If decreases with height, convection can occur. The comparison of the equivalent potential temperature of parcels of air at different pressures thus provides a measure of the instability of the column of air.
Read more about Equivalent Potential Temperature: Formula, Usage
Famous quotes containing the words equivalent, potential and/or temperature:
“But then people don’t read literature in order to understand; they read it because they want to re-live the feelings and sensations which they found exciting in the past. Art can be a lot of things; but in actual practice, most of it is merely the mental equivalent of alcohol and cantharides.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“And what is the potential man, after all? Is he not the sum of all that is human? Divine, in other words?”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice.... It indicates better than any water hereabouts the absolute progress of the season, being least affected by transient changes of temperature. A severe cold of a few days’ duration in March may very much retard the opening of the former ponds, while the temperature of Walden increases almost uninterruptedly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)