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An adiabatic lapse rate is the rate at which a fluid's temperature changes when it is subjected to pressure changes. Most commonly, the term refers to the adiabatic lapse rate of air in the earth's atmosphere and is expressed in temperature degrees per 1000 ft pressure change. If the air has no moisture content, the adiabatic lapse rate is always 2.98°C per 1000ft. This is known as the dry adiabatic lapse rate. If however, the air is nearly saturated with water vapour, liquid water will precipitate out of the air as the pressure changes. This precipitation process releases heat into the air, changing the adiabatic lapse rate. Thus, a moist adiabatic lapse rate applies. The moist adiabatic lapse rate varies, but is usually near 1.5°C per 1000ft.

The current adiabatic lapse rate is of critical importance in meteorology. When compared to the environmental lapse rate, it can be used to predict the stability of the air. If the environmental lapse rate is steeper, or higher than the adiabatic lapse rate, the air is unstable and there is a high probability of thunderstorms or poor weather.

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Topics: Adiabatic Lapse Rate, Adiabatic Process, Adiabatic Index...

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Adiabatic lapse rateAn adiabatic lapse rate is the rate at which a fluid's temperature changes when it is subjected to pressure changes. Most commonly, the term refers to the adiabatic lapse rate of air in the earth's atmosphere and is expressed in temperature degrees per 10	Adiabatic process (quantum mechanics)In quantum mechanics, an adiabatic process is a sufficiently slow change in the Hamiltonian which would result only in a change of eigenvalues, not eigenstates. Hence, if a system starts in the ground state, it will remain in the ground state of the syste

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