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    The Equivalent Potential Temperature

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    Md Cassim
    1. The equivalent potential temperature (θe) represents the temperature a parcel of air would reach if it rose adiabatically, allowing water vapor to condense and release latent heat, then was compressed adiabatically back to 1000 mb. 2. Through mathematical derivations using equations for potential temperature (θ) and the first law of thermodynamics, it is shown that θe can be written as θ exp(Lws/cpT), where ws is the mixing ratio of saturated water vapor and L is the latent heat of vaporization. 3. This demonstrates that θe accounts for the additional heat released by condensation of water vapor as the air parcel rises and expands. It remains

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    The Equivalent Potential Temperature

    Uploaded by

    Md Cassim
    29 views3 pages
    1. The equivalent potential temperature (θe) represents the temperature a parcel of air would reach if it rose adiabatically, allowing water vapor to condense and release latent heat, then was compressed adiabatically back to 1000 mb. 2. Through mathematical derivations using equations for potential temperature (θ) and the first law of thermodynamics, it is shown that θe can be written as θ exp(Lws/cpT), where ws is the mixing ratio of saturated water vapor and L is the latent heat of vaporization. 3. This demonstrates that θe accounts for the additional heat released by condensation of water vapor as the air parcel rises and expands. It remains

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    1. The equivalent potential temperature (θe) represents the temperature a parcel of air would reach if it rose adiabatically, allowing water vapor to condense and release latent heat, then was compressed adiabatically back to 1000 mb. 2. Through mathematical derivations using equations for potential temperature (θ) and the first law of thermodynamics, it is shown that θe can be written as θ exp(Lws/cpT), where ws is the mixing ratio of saturated water vapor and L is the latent heat of vaporization. 3. This demonstrates that θe accounts for the additional heat released by condensation of water vapor as the air parcel rises and expands. It remains

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    29 views3 pages

    The Equivalent Potential Temperature

    Uploaded by

    Md Cassim
    1. The equivalent potential temperature (θe) represents the temperature a parcel of air would reach if it rose adiabatically, allowing water vapor to condense and release latent heat, then was compressed adiabatically back to 1000 mb. 2. Through mathematical derivations using equations for potential temperature (θ) and the first law of thermodynamics, it is shown that θe can be written as θ exp(Lws/cpT), where ws is the mixing ratio of saturated water vapor and L is the latent heat of vaporization. 3. This demonstrates that θe accounts for the additional heat released by condensation of water vapor as the air parcel rises and expands. It remains

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    1

    The Equivalent Potential Temperature


    Physically this represents the case where a parcel of air rises (expands) pseudo-
    adiabatically until all the water condenses (thus adding heat) and falls out of the parcel.
    The parcel is then adiabatically compressed as a dry parcel of air to a standard pressure
    of 1000 mb whereupon it will achieve its equivalent potential temperature.
    We derive this as follows:
    dp
    = S = cp dT , ( dp
    R )=
    ,Ls
    T T p T

    Recall the de nition of potential temperature


     p 
     = T po

    Now we take the log of both sides (as usual)

    ln () = ln(T ) , cR (ln(p) + ln(po)


    p

    Now let's di erentiate and take out cp to get


     = c dT , R dp
    cp
    d
    p
     T p

    Ah ha, that looks just like the rst equation above so that

    cp
     = ,Ls
    d
     T

    Factoring further
     = , L  
    d
    s
     cp T

    okay, we are stuck here and now unless we do a bit of math magic that is beyond your
    level:
    we can rewrite
    2

    , cLT  s
    p
    as
    L
     
    ,c  d T
    s
    p

    why? well ...


    rst we assumed that L
    cp is independent of temperature then we can evaluate this
    terms d( Ts ) as follows:
     
    s
    d
    T
    = dT s , Ts2 dT

    factoring out 1/T yields


       
    d
    T
    s
    = T1 ds , s dt
    T

    factoring out the s gives


       d 
    d
    T
    s
    = T1 s
    s
    ,T dt

    (note that in the textbook w = s)


    Well it turns out (see problem 2.33 in Wallace and Hobbs) that
    ds dt
    >>
    s T

    so that dt
    T is e ectively zero leaving that
     
    d
    s
    T
     T1 (ds )
    so we now have
    d =,L d
     
    s
     cp T

    or
    3

    ln () = , L
    c T
    s
    + e
    p

    where e is the constant of integration


    Exponentiating then leads to the nal form
    Ls
    e = exp cp T
    note that as s goes to zero then e = , as expected.

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