Equilibria in the Troposphere
Classical Physics
2008-10-21 v1 Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Abstract
We show that various types of equilibrium play an important part in the behaviour of the troposphere. In analogy to the electro-chemical potential (well-known in solid-state physics and electro-chemistry) a gravito-chemical potential and a gravito-thermo-chemical potential, as well as the corresponding equilibria are introduced. We shall show that (a) the isothermal atmosphere is characterized by a constant gravito-chemical potential; (b) the well-mixed or adiabatic atmosphere is characterized by a constant gravito-thermo-chemical potential. Thus, a linear decrease of the temperature with the vertical coordinate corresponds to a state of equilibrium.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0810.3375,
title = {Equilibria in the Troposphere},
author = {Friedrich Herrmann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.3375},
year = {2008}
}