ATMOSPHERIC DYNAMICS AND METEOROLOGY

STABILITY, INVERSION, TURBULENCE

Salvador, Ashley
Atmospheric dynamics is a core
component of all atmospheric science
curricula. Atmospheric dynamics is the
discipline concerned with what different
classes of geophysical disturbances are
made of, how and why they form, what
factors dictate their structure and
movement, how the Earth’s uneven
surface impacts them, how they
eventually decay and, above all, how they
collectively constrain the atmospheric
general circulation as a whole.

Meteorology is a branch of the

atmospheric sciences which includes
atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric
physics, with a major focus on weather
forecasting.
STABILITY
Atmospheric stability is defined as
the resistance of the atmosphere to
vertical motion.
 A hot air balloon is
warmer and less dense
than the environment
and rises.

The density of an air depends on temperature

• Increase temperature = less dense
• Decrease temperature = more dense

r = P/(RT)
STABLE
UNSTABLE
CONDITIONALLY UNSTABLE
TEMPERATURE
INVERSION
A deviation from the normal
change of an atmospheric property
with altitude.

Surface inversion

Upper air inversion

Frontal inversion

An inversion acts as a cap on the upward movement of air from the layers below. 
SURFACE
INVERSION
Night inversion or Radiation
inversion

Advection inversion
FRONTAL
INVERSION
Inversions caused by a shallow
“cold front” blowing under
warmer air.

Sometimes you hear about a "cold front" or a "warm front" moving in from
somewhere. What this is referring to is when wind is blowing from a cold or warm
place, and causing a large pocket of that air, also called an "air mass," to come to
where you are.
UPPER AIR
INVERSION
Subsidence

Convection and Turbulence

UPPER AIR
INVERSION
Subsidence

Convection and Turbulence

• Mechanical turbulence

Cirrocumulus Standing Lenticular

Altocumulus Standing Lenticular
Rotor Clouds (often associated with the most intense turbulence)
UPPER AIR
INVERSION
Subsidence

Convection and Turbulence

• Mechanical turbulence
• Thermal (convective)
turbulence

The heating of the day causes convective thermals to rise

UPPER AIR
INVERSION
Subsidence

Convection and Turbulence

• Mechanical turbulence
• Thermal (convective)
turbulence
• Frontal turbulence
UPPER AIR
INVERSION
Subsidence

Convection and Turbulence

• Mechanical turbulence
• Thermal (convective)
turbulence
• Frontal turbulence
• Wind shear