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**2** 

*Italy* 

Francesco Cairo

**Atmospheric Thermodynamics** 

Thermodynamics deals with the transformations of the energy in a system and between the system and its environment. Hence, it is involved in every atmospheric process, from the large scale general circulation to the local transfer of radiative, sensible and latent heat between the surface and the atmosphere and the microphysical processes producing clouds and aerosol. Thus the topic is much too broad to find an exhaustive treatment within the limits of a book chapter, whose main goal will be limited to give a broad overview of the implications of thermodynamics in the atmospheric science and introduce some if its jargon. The basic thermodynamic principles will not be reviewed here, while emphasis will be placed on some topics that will find application to the interpretation of fundamental atmospheric processes. An overview of the composition of air will be given, together with an outline of its stratification in terms of temperature and water vapour profile. The ideal gas law will be introduced, together with the concept of hydrostatic stability, temperature lapse rate, scale height, and hydrostatic equation. The concept of an air parcel and its enthalphy and free energy will be defined, together with the potential temperature concept that will be related to the static stability of the atmosphere and connected to the Brunt-

Water phase changes play a pivotal role in the atmosphere and special attention will be placed on these transformations. The concept of vapour pressure will be introduced together with the Clausius-Clapeyron equation and moisture parameters will be defined. Adiabatic transformation for the unsaturated and saturated case will be discussed with the help of some aerological diagrams of common practice in Meteorology and the notion of neutral buoyancy and free convection will be introduced and considered referring to an exemplificative atmospheric sounding. There, the Convective Inhibition and Convective Available Potential Energy will be introduced and examined. The last subchapter is devoted to a brief overview of warm and cold clouds formation processes, with the aim to stimulate the interest of reader toward more specialized texts, as some of those listed in the conclusion

We know from experience that pressure, volume and temperature of any homogeneous substance are connected by an *equation of state*. These physical variables, for all gases over a

**1. Introduction** 

Vaisala frequency.

and in the bibliography.

**2. Dry air thermodynamics and stability** 

*Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto di* 

 *Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima* 

