Premium
Energy changes involved in disturbing a dry atmosphere
Author(s) -
Ball F. K.
Publication year - 1956
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49708235103
Subject(s) - kinetic energy , atmosphere (unit) , frost (temperature) , lapse rate , mixing (physics) , mechanics , temperature gradient , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , energy (signal processing) , thermodynamics , meteorology , physics , classical mechanics , quantum mechanics
A method is presented for calculating the energy changes involved in disturbing a layer of a dry atmosphere. The special case of complete mixing is considered in detail and it is shown that this can only occur spontaneously when the Richardson number is less than one‐half. The kinetic energy absorbed or released when a layer of any thickness and lapse rate is completely mixed can be estimated from a graph. A second graph gives the kinetic energy necessary to maintain a given temperature gradient when heat is added to or withdrawn from any given level within the layer. Application to frost prevention shows that the energy required to maintain mixing in a 100‐ft layer while heat is being lost at the base is only a small fraction of the input energy from the normal design of frost fan.