AtmosphereGaseous envelopeWritten by:Roger A. Pielke, Sr. 2 READ VIEW ALL MEDIA (41) VIEW HISTORY EDIT FEEDBACKTABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Surface budgets Vertical structure of the atmosphere Troposphere Stratosphere and mesosphere Thermosphere Magnetosphere and exosphere Horizontal structure of the atmosphere Cloud processes Measurement systems The atmospheres of other planetsPLANETARY BOUNDARY LAYERThe lower levels of the troposphere are usually strongly influenced by Earths surface. This sublayer, known as the planetaryboundary layer, is that region of the atmosphere in which the surface influences temperature, moisture, and wind velocity through the turbulent transfer of mass. As a result of surface friction, winds in the planetary boundary layer are usually weaker than above and tend to blow toward areas of low pressure. For this reason, the planetary boundary layer has also been called an Ekman layer, for Swedish oceanographerVagn Walfrid Ekman, a pioneer in the study of the behaviour of wind-driven ocean currents. IMAGES VIDEOS QUIZZES LISTS Under clear, sunny skies over land, the planetary boundary layer tends to be relatively deep as a result of the heating of the ground by the Sun and the resultant generation of convective turbulence. During the summer, the planetary boundary layer can reach heights of 1 to 1.5 km (0.6 to 1 mile) above the land surfacefor example, in the humid eastern United Statesand up to 5 km (3 miles) in the southwesterndesert. Under these conditions, when unsaturated air rises and expands, the temperature decreases at the dryadiabatic lapse rate(9.8 C per kilometre, or roughly 23 F per mile) throughout most of the boundary layer. Near Earths heated surface, air temperature decreases superadiabatically (at a lapse rate greater than the dry adiabatic lapse rate). In contrast, during clear,calmnights, turbulence tends to cease, and radiational cooling (net loss of heat) from the surface results in an air temperature that increases with height above the surface.When the rate of temperature decrease with height exceeds the adiabatic lapse rate for a region of the atmosphere,turbulenceis generated. This is due to theconvective overturnof the air as the warmer lower-level air rises and mixes with the cooler air aloft. In this situation, since the environmental lapse rate is greater than the adiabatic lapse rate, an ascending parcel of air remains warmer than the surrounding ambient air even though the parcel is both cooling and expanding. Evidence of this overturn is produced in the form of bubbles, oreddies, of warmer air. The larger bubbles often have sufficient buoyant energy to penetrate the top of the boundary layer. The subsequent rapid air displacement brings air from aloft into the boundary layer, thereby deepening the layer. Under these conditions of atmospheric instability, the air aloft cools according to the environmental lapse rate faster than the rising air is cooling at the adiabatic lapse rate. The air above the boundary layer replaces the rising air and undergoes compressional warming as it descends. As a result, this entrained air heats the boundary layer.The ability of the convective bubbles to break through the top of the boundary layer depends on the environmental lapse rate aloft. The upward movement of penetrative bubbles will decrease rapidly if the parcel quickly becomes cooler than the ambient environment that surrounds it. In this situation, the air parcel will become less buoyant with additional ascent. The height that the boundary layer attains on a sunny day, therefore, is strongly influenced by the intensity of surface heating and the environmental lapse rate just above the boundary layer. The more rapidly a rising turbulent bubble cools above the boundary layer relative to the surrounding air, the lower the chance that subsequent turbulent bubbles will penetrate far above the boundary layer. The top of the daytime boundary layer is referred to as themixed-layer inversion.On clear, calm nights, radiational cooling results in a temperature increase with height. In this situation, known as anocturnal inversion, turbulence is suppressed by the strong thermal stratification. Thermally stable conditions occur when warmer air overlies cooler, denser air. Over flat terrain, a nearly laminar wind flow (a pattern where winds from an upper layer easily slide past winds from a lower layer) can result. The depth of the radiationally cooled layer of air depends on a variety of factors, such as the moisture content of the air, soil and vegetation characteristics, and terrain configuration. In a desert environment, for instance, the nocturnal inversion tends to be found at greater heights than in a more humid environment. The inversion in more humid environments occurs at a lower altitude because more long-wave radiation emitted by the surface is absorbed by numerous available water molecules and reemitted back toward the surface. As a result, the lower levels of the troposphere are prevented from cooling rapidly. If the air is moist and sufficient near-surface cooling occurs, water vapour will condense into what is called radiationfog.