Tephigrams

ENVI1400 : Lecture 8
• Tephigrams are thermodynamic
diagrams – one of a range of such
diagrams developed to help in the visual
analysis of atmospheric profiles.
• They have the property that equal areas
on the diagram represent equal amounts
of energy.

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 Tephigram
Thermodynamic
diagram showing
Temperature (°C) the vertical structure
of the atmosphere.

Dew­point
temperature (°C)

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 Temperature (°C)

Pressure (mb)

Potential
Temperature (°C)
or ‘dry adiabat’
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Saturated Adiabat Saturation
mixing ratio (g kg-1)

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 Potential Temperature
• Much of the change in air • Potential temperature,  (K) is
temperature with altitude is defined as the temperature a
due purely to the reduction in parcel of air would have if
pressure. moved adiabatically to a
• It is often easier to work with a pressure level of 1000 mb.
measure of temperature that R
accounts for this pressure-  1000  Cp
related change in T, allowing   T 
us to focus on real differences  P 
in the energy content of the
gas. The Potential
Temperature is one such R/Cp = 0.286 for air
measure. T must be in Kelvin

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 Adiabatic Lifting
• As a parcel of air is lifted, the
pressure decreases & the parcel
expands and cools at the dry
adiabatic lapse rate.
• As the parcel cools, the Saturation mixing ratio
equal to actual water
saturation mixing ratio vapour mixing ratio of parcel
decreases; when it equals the
actual water vapour mixing ratio
the parcel becomes saturated
and condensation can occur. Lifting
condensation
• The level at which saturation level
occurs is called the lifting
condensation level. Dew point
at surface

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• If the parcel continues to rise, it
will cool further; the saturation
mixing ratio decreases, and
more water condenses out.
• Condensation releases latent
heat; this offsets some of the
cooling due to lifting so that the
saturated air parcel cools at a
lower rate than dry air.
• The saturated (or wet)
adiabatic lapse rate is NOT
constant, but depends upon
both the temperature and
pressure.

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 Stability
If adiabatic ascent of a parcel of air
Environmental results in a temperature less than
Lapse Rate the environmental temperature at
any given level, then the air parcel
will be more dense than the
surrounding air, and will fall back
towards its original level.
Such conditions are described as
(statically) stable. Similarly a parcel
forced downward, under stable
conditions will warm adiabatically to
a temperature greater than the
surrounding air, will be less dense,
Dry adiabatic Environment warmer
ascent of surface than lifted parcel and will rise back towards its
air parcel  stable original level.

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 Environmental
Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate
Lapse Rate

Lifted air is warmer

than environment
 unstable

If adiabatically lifted air is warmer Such conditions are described as

than the surrounding environment, it statically unstable, or convective.
will be less dense, and therefore This is common near the surface when
buoyant, and will continue to rise. heated by sunlight.

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 Theoretical maximum
altitude to which parcel
may overshoot

Equal areas

Equal areas on a tephigram represent equal amounts of energy. The buoyant

potential energy available is represented by the area between the
environmental temperature curve and the adiabatic lapse rate. As the parcel
rises, this is converted to kinetic energy. The rising parcel may overshoot its
level of neutral buoyancy by an amount that just uses up all the kinetic energy.
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 Absolute Stability
Adiabatic lifting (dry & wet) never
results in the air temperature
exceeding that of the environment.
Lifting can only take place if forced,
and at the expense of using energy.
This is sometimes called forced
convection and may occur due to
stable mechanical mixing of stable air in
strong winds.
Cloud is formed if air lifted above the
lifting condensation level (LCL), but
remains limited to extent of parcel
lifted from below.

LCL
Temperature at surface
Dew point at surface

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 Absolute Instability
Any adiabatic lifting results in air that
is warmer than its environment, and
thus in buoyant convection. The
buoyancy force increases at the
lifting condensation level due
Cloud overshoots level warming by the release of latent
of neutral stability
heat.
stable Strong solar heating of the surface,
or advection over a warmer surface
often results in unstable, or
convective, conditions in the
boundary layer. Cumulus clouds
unstable

frequently form in such conditions.

LCL

Temperature at surface
Dew point at surface

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Conditional Instability
Forced adiabatic lifting of an air
parcel through a region of static
stability such that wet adiabatic lifting
succeeds in raising the temperature
above the environmental

stable
temperature. At this point, the parcel
becomes convectively unstable and
continues to lift under its own
buoyancy.
unstable
stable

LCL

Temperature at surface
Dew point at surface

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Convective Instability
The column of air A-B has a
lapse rate less than the dry
adiabatic lapse rate, and is
thus stable.
If the column is forced to lift
B'
adiabatically, the whole
B column cools. If the lower part
of the column reaches
saturation [A'], it starts to cool
at the wet adiabatic lapse rate
A' – if this is less than the lapse
rate of the column A'-B‘, the
column becomes unstable.
LCL A
This type of instability may
occur during large scale lifting
up frontal surfaces or flow over
mountain ranges.

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