Moisture Relationships

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Moisture Relationships
Atmospheric Moisture is necessary for
Precipitation. That moisture is moved to
the atmosphere by Evaporation and
Transpiration

Humidity
The presence of moisture (water vapor,
an invisible gas) in the atmosphere is
measured by the humidity of the air.
Humidity and condensation are closely
related as condensation inevitably
occurs when the air is saturated with
moisture (100% humidity).
585 calories/gram

Latent Heat of Condensation

Gas to liquid droplet,
heat is released to the
atmosphere, air molecules
move faster, move apart, less dense, rise

Some useful units

One Gram is the mass of liquid water in a little
cube, one centimeter on a side.
A centimeter is less than half an inch. It is 1/100
of a meter.
A meter is 39.37 inches, so a centimeter is about
0.394 inches
A mole of anything is 6.023 x 1023
1023 means 10x10x10x10x10x x10 twenty three times

Relative Humidity and Dew

Point

Absolute humidity measures the amount of water

vapor in air. Grams H2O/m3 of air. This water is a
gas, water vapor.
Relative humidity measures the amount of water
vapor in air relative to the maximum amount of
water vapor the air could hold at that
temperature.
Relative humidity increases with increasing water
vapor or decreasing temperature. Cold air cant
carry as much water vapor as warm air.
The dew point is the temperature to which a given
parcel of humid air must be cooled, at constant
barometric pressure, for water vapor to condense
into liquid water.

Absolute Humidity
Absolute humidity measures the amount
(mass) of water in a volume of air. Units
are grams /meters3
Problem: volume changes as parcel rises
H2O

Same # grams
in a larger
volume, so abs.
humidity
decreases

So we will need
some measures of
humidity that do
not depend on
volume.

298.15K
285.15K

25oC
12oC

C = 5/9(F- 32)

K=oC + 273.15

Various Temperature Scales

72oF
53.6oF

Gas Laws
1600s to 1800s
Pressure times Volume is a constant
Increase Temp, Volume increases
Increase Temp, Pressure increases

Combined as ideal gas law:Increase moles of gas, Volume increases

n= # moles, and R is the universal gas constant
R = 8.314472 NmK1mol1

Avogadros
law
Equal volumes of gases at the same
temperature and pressure contain the same
number of molecules regardless of their
chemical nature and physical properties. This number
(Avogadro's number) is 6.022 X 1023 . These occupy
22.41 L for all gases at temperature of 273.15 K (0
C, 32 F) and an absolute pressure of 100 kPa.
Dry air
Moist air
Dry air
(21% O2,
78% N2, 1%
)
Md ~other
0.21*32+0.78*28
~ 28.9

Water
vapor
Mv =(H
2*12O)
+ 16 = 18

Moist air is lighter than dry air because number of

molecules is the same for equal volumes, and water is
lighter than O2 or N2

Moist Air vs. Dry Air 1

Air with water vapor in it (Moist Air) is
lighter than dry air
Heres Why:
When water vapor H2O is added to air,
other gases are pushed aside.
(Avogadros Law, # mol/vol = const)
Recall that dry air is mostly Nitrogen N2
and Oxygen O2 molecules.

Moist Air vs. Dry Air 2

OR why moist air rises
Water H2O weighs 18 grams per mole.
Nitrogen N2 weighs 28 grams per mole
Oxygen O2 weighs 32 grams per mole
The number of molecules in air in some
volume at constant T and P is constant.
Since light water molecules displace
much heavier molecules, air with water
vapor in it is lighter, less dense, more
buoyant. Moist air rises, forms storms.

Daltons Law of Partial

Pressures
John Dalton studied the effect of
gases in a mixture. He observed
that the Total Pressure of a gas
mixture was the sum of the Partial
Pressure of each gas.
P total = P1 + P2 + P3 + .......Pn
The Partial Pressure is defined as
the pressure of a single gas in the
mixture as if that gas alone
occupied the container

Partial Pressure of water

vapor
e or ew

Partial Pressure is the pressure that would be

exerted on a surface by a gas in a mixture if
the other gases were absent.
e = e sat(Td)
The Partial Pressure of water vapor e w is given
by a form of the Ideal Gas Law
ew = RT
e = water vapor pressure in mbars
w

0.622

w = vapor density or absolute hum.

R = Dry Air Gas Constant
ratio of the molecular
of water
R=weights
2.87 x 103 mbar
cm3/g . K
= absolute
temperature Kelvin
molecular weight forTair
(28.9).

where 0.622 is the

(18) to an average
1 mb [mbar, millibar] = 100 Pascals

Mixing Ratio,
Air pressure, P, is the total
pressure that air makes on
a surface
Ideal gas law relates
pressure to density and
absolute temperature T.
Vapor pressure, e, is the
pressure that water vapor
exerts on a surface. Rv is
the gas constant for water
vapor
Mixing Ratio is the ratio of
vapor mass to dry air mass
v/dry
0.622 is ratio of mol. wt. of
water vapor to avg mol. wt.
of dry air (=18/28.9)

P R T

e v RvT

Notice this mixing ratio doesnt depend on volume (the vs in density

cancel) , and so will stay constant as a parcel ascends

Curve Fits
Complex situations, such as mixtures
of gases, often defeat modeling
because the assumptions of physical
equations arent true.
In this case we do many
experiments, plot the data, and fit a
curve to the data.

Saturation vapor pressure,

ewhen
Saturation vapor pressure occurs
sat air is holding all the water vapor
that it can at a given air temperature, then RH = 100% and T=Tdew point
Then T dry bulb = T wet bulb

http://hurri.ke
an.edu/~yoh/
calculations/s
atvap/satvap.
html

pws = water vapor saturation

pressure (Pa)
e = the constant 2.718.......
T = dry bulb temperature of
the moist air (K)
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/
water-vapor-saturation-pressureair-d_689.html

Relative Humidity
The relative humidity of an air-water mixture is defined
as the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor in the
mixture, called ew or e, to the saturated vapor
pressure of water at a prescribed temperature, called
e*w or esat. I prefer e and esat, respectively.
Relative humidity is normally expressed as a
percentage and is calculated by using the following
equation:

This equation is useful for calculating e from esat and

RH

Saturated Air Properties

Appendix C
varies slightly

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/water-vapor-saturation-pressure-air-d_689.html
e sat

Dry Air Properties at std. atm.

sea-level

Water Vapor Density Curve

Fit
The density of water vapor can be
expressed as:

v = 0.0022 pv / T
where
pv = e =partial pressure water vapor
(Pa, N/m2)

v = density water vapor (kg/m3)

T = absolute dry bulb temperature

(K)

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/water-vapor-saturation-pressure-air-d_689.html

Specific Humidity, qv
Specific humidity measures
the mass of water vapor
per unit mass of moist air
It is dimensionless
Like mixing ratio, it doesnt
change with volume.

We still need the

moist air density.

Density of Moist Air, m

m = P/RT (1 - 0.378 e /
We need this to calculate the
specific humidity.
Derivation in the handout follows
this.