What causes the temperature to decrease with height in the troposphere? What is this process called?
1 Answer
Dec 6, 2017
Drop in pressure. Adiabatic process.
Explanation:
Lets start with gas laws. There are three gas laws that make up the ideal gas laws, the one in effect here is Gay Lussac's law which states that pressure is directly proportional to temperature.
Atmospheric pressure is simply the pressure caused by the gravity of the Earth acting on the mass of the atmosphere. As you move higher up there is less and less atmosphere about you, so pressure decreases and therefore temperature decreases.
Adiabatic process basically means that there is no outside forces acting on the system. In this case, a parcel of air rises in the atmosphere and cools as the pressure drops. The temperature does not cool because of mixing with surrounding air.
