An adiabatic process is one in which the system being considered does not exchange heat with its environment. The most common atmospheric adiabatic phenomena are those involving the change of air temperature due to change of pressure. If an air mass has its pressure decreased, it will expand and do mechanical work on the surrounding air. If no heat is taken from the surroundings, the energy required to do work is taken from the heat energy of the air mass, resulting in a temperature decrease. When pressure is increased, the work done on the air mass appears as heat, causing its temperature to rise.
The rates of adiabatic heating and cooling in the atmosphere are described as lapse rates and are expressed as the change of temperature with height. The adiabatic lapse rate for dry air is very nearly 1°C per 100 m. If condensation occurs in the air parcel, latent heat is released, thereby modifying the rate of temperature change. This retarded rate is called the pseudo-adiabatic lapse...
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References
Byers, H. R., 1959. General Meteorology, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cole, F. W., 1980. Introduction to Meteorology, 3rd ed. New York: Wiley.
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© 1987 Van Nostrand Reinhold
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1987). Adiabatic phenomena . In: Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_2
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