Related papers: Atmosphere as a steam engine
The climate system is a forced, dissipative, nonlinear, complex and heterogeneous system that is out of thermodynamic equilibrium. The system exhibits natural variability on many scales of motion, in time as well as space, and it is subject…
Atmospheric circulation on tidally-locked exoplanets is driven by the absorption and reradiation of heat from the host star. They are natural heat engines, converting heat into mechanical energy. A steady state is possible only if there is…
We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation of the evaporation dynamics of freely levitated water droplets in an upward airstream under varying temperature and relative humidity conditions, using a custom-designed…
The provision of accurate methods for predicting the climate response to anthropogenic and natural forcings is a key contemporary scientific challenge. Using a simplified and efficient open-source general circulation model of the atmosphere…
We consider a simplified physics of the could interface where condensation, evaporation and radiation are neglected and momentum, thermal energy and water vapor transport is represented in terms of the Boussinesq model coupled to a passive…
Wind turbines operate in the atmospheric boundary layer, where they are exposed to the turbulent atmospheric flows. As the response time of wind turbine is typically in the range of seconds, they are affected by the small scale intermittent…
The Earth acts as a gigantic heat engine driven by decay of radiogenic isotopes and slow cooling, which gives rise to plate tectonics, volcanoes, and mountain building. Another key product is the geomagnetic field, generated in the liquid…
Extensive air showers are generated through interactions of high-energy cosmic rays impinging the Earth's atmosphere. A new method is described to infer the attenuation of hadrons in air showers. The numbers of electrons and muons,…
Evidence is emerging for physical links among clouds, global temperatures, the global atmospheric electrical circuit and cosmic ray ionisation. The global circuit extends throughout the atmosphere from the planetary surface to the lower…
Measurements of atmospheric winds in the mesoscale range (10-500 km) reveal remarkably universal spectra with the $k^{-5/3}$ power law. Despite initial expectations of the inverse energy cascade, as in two-dimensional (2D) turbulence,…
The long-term evolution of hydrogen-dominated atmospheres of sub-Neptune-like planets is mostly controlled by two factors: a slow dissipation of the gravitational energy acquired at the formation (known as thermal evolution) and atmospheric…
Sub-Neptunes (planets with radii between 2 and 4 R$_{\oplus}$) are abundant around M-dwarf stars, yet the atmospheric dynamics of these planets is relatively unexplored. In this paper, we aim to provide a basic underpinning of the dry…
Convective and radiative cooling are the two principle mechanisms by which the Earth's surface transfers heat into the atmosphere and that shape surface temperature. However, this partitioning is not sufficiently constrained by energy and…
How phase transitions affect the motion of moist atmospheric air remains controversial. In the early 2000s two distinct differential equations of motion were proposed. Besides their contrasting formulations for the acceleration of…
Variations in zonal surface temperature gradients and zonally asymmetric tropical overturning circulations (Walker circulations) are examined over a wide range of climates simulated with an idealized atmospheric general circulation model…
Life is a planetary feature that depends on its environment, but it has also strongly shaped the physical conditions on Earth, having created conditions highly suitable for a productive biosphere. Clearly, the second law of thermodynamics…
A theoretical framework is established to model the evaporation from continuously fed droplets, promising tools in the thermal management of high heat flux electronics. Using the framework, a comprehensive model is developed for a…
Cloud processes are the largest source of uncertainty in quantifying the global temperature response to carbon dioxide rise. Still, the role of precipitation efficiency (PE) -- surface rain per unit column -- integrated condensation -- is…
Molecular oxygen in our atmosphere has increased from less than a part per million in the Archean Eon, to a fraction of a percent in the Proterozoic, and finally to modern levels during the Phanerozoic. The ozone layer formed with the early…
Raylaigh-Benard convection is one of the most well-studied models in fluid mechanics. Atmospheric convection, one of the most important components of the climate system, is by comparison complicated and poorly understood. A key attribute of…