Why does the air gets cooler and cooler as it gets higher and higher even though It is getting a bit closer to sun as compared to where it condensed from???
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In the lower part of the atmosphere - the troposphere - there is a fair amount of upward and downward motion of the air. Some of it is due to winds blowing up mountains and down the other side. Some of it is due to hot parts of the ground heating the air and making it more buoyant so it rises. Some of it is due to warmer air running into colder air and being deflected upwards. When air rises, it expands because the pressure is falling. As it expands it cools due to adiabatic expansion. When it comes back down, it get compressed and its temperature increases again. Due to these various effects, on average, the temperature gets progressively lower with altitude. This reduction in temperature with altitude is called Lapse rate.
The top of the troposphere (the tropopause) is where these ups and downs of the air peter out. Above that, we move into the Stratosphere. In this region, solar energy absorbed by ozone warms the air and the temperature goes up with altitude. It's not because you are closer to the sun though. It's more like there is less air between you and the sun, so there is more sunlight to absorb
The top of the troposphere (the tropopause) is where these ups and downs of the air peter out. Above that, we move into the Stratosphere. In this region, solar energy absorbed by ozone warms the air and the temperature goes up with altitude. It's not because you are closer to the sun though. It's more like there is less air between you and the sun, so there is more sunlight to absorb
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Our atmosphere contains small building blocks, or gas molecules, that make up the air we breathe, she said. We can’t always see or feel how much gas there is, but we can measure it. We can calculate the mass of gas, or the number of molecules there are in a certain area.
Air is actually pushing down on us all the time, even if we can’t really feel it.
“Imagine you are standing on Earth’s surface,” Pressley said. “There’s a column of air above your head that stretches up to the top of the atmosphere. The column of air is pushing down on your head. This is pressure.”
“Now, climb the tallest mountain you can find and stand on it,” she adds. “The column of air pushing down on your head is shorter. It has less mass than the column in the first spot.”
The air pressure is greater when you are closer to the level of the ocean’s surface. Here, the building blocks or molecules are pretty squished together. When the gas’ pressure is greater, temperature increases.
Maybe you’ve heard people say the air is thinner up in the mountains, where there is less pressure and the molecules or building blocks are more spread out. When the pressure of a gas decreases, so does temperature.
Pressure is a big part of the answer to the first part of your question. The other part of your question involves the sun. Our sun is about 490 billion feet away from the surface of the Earth. While a mountain might seem tall, it’s pretty puny in comparison to the distance between Earth and our sun. It actually doesn’t make a huge difference in temperature.
Pressley said that pressure and our sun also have a lot to do with weather. When sunlight travels through the atmosphere, it heats the surface of the planet. When the surface gets warmer, it sends heat back up to air molecules near the surface and warms them up. The molecules of air rise. As they do, they expand and cool.
Somewhere else, air over a mountain that is even colder actually starts to sink. This sinking air gets compressed, squished together, and heats up. This mixing of air is called convection and is at the heart of our weather. This system also keeps the surface of our home planet warm enough to live—from the colder mountains to the warmer beaches around our world.
Air is actually pushing down on us all the time, even if we can’t really feel it.
“Imagine you are standing on Earth’s surface,” Pressley said. “There’s a column of air above your head that stretches up to the top of the atmosphere. The column of air is pushing down on your head. This is pressure.”
“Now, climb the tallest mountain you can find and stand on it,” she adds. “The column of air pushing down on your head is shorter. It has less mass than the column in the first spot.”
The air pressure is greater when you are closer to the level of the ocean’s surface. Here, the building blocks or molecules are pretty squished together. When the gas’ pressure is greater, temperature increases.
Maybe you’ve heard people say the air is thinner up in the mountains, where there is less pressure and the molecules or building blocks are more spread out. When the pressure of a gas decreases, so does temperature.
Pressure is a big part of the answer to the first part of your question. The other part of your question involves the sun. Our sun is about 490 billion feet away from the surface of the Earth. While a mountain might seem tall, it’s pretty puny in comparison to the distance between Earth and our sun. It actually doesn’t make a huge difference in temperature.
Pressley said that pressure and our sun also have a lot to do with weather. When sunlight travels through the atmosphere, it heats the surface of the planet. When the surface gets warmer, it sends heat back up to air molecules near the surface and warms them up. The molecules of air rise. As they do, they expand and cool.
Somewhere else, air over a mountain that is even colder actually starts to sink. This sinking air gets compressed, squished together, and heats up. This mixing of air is called convection and is at the heart of our weather. This system also keeps the surface of our home planet warm enough to live—from the colder mountains to the warmer beaches around our world.
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