Sounding the Ocean of Air: Being Six Lectures Delivered Before the Lowell Institute of Boston, in December 1898Rotch, Abbott Lawrence
Science
Sounding the Ocean of Air: Being Six Lectures Delivered Before the Lowell Institute of Boston, in December 1898
Rotch, Abbott Lawrence
Atmosphere; Balloons; Clouds; Kites (Meteorology)
Fig. 6 gives the change in wind velocity at the different levels.
There was an increase of wind at all the levels from the time of the
passage of the anti-cyclone to the passage of the cyclone. The minimum
of wind at 200 metres was in the anti-cyclone, with a secondary
minimum during the passage of the centre of the cyclone.
Figs. 7 to 10 show the changes in height from day to day of the equal
conditions at the different levels. Fig. 7 shows the change in level
of the isobars, which, although very small, is largest at the lower
levels. The light broken lines in Fig. 7 and subsequent figures
indicate the axes of the anti-cyclone and cyclone. That the axis of
the cyclone was inclined backward, and that the high pressure occurred
later at high than at low levels, was confirmed by the wind
observations on the twenty-first.
Fig. 8 shows the heights at which the same temperatures were found on
successive days. Since the isotherms rose until the twenty-third, the
temperature of the air up to 3000 metres was higher on the day of the
cyclone than on the day of the anti-cyclone. Previous high flights
indicate that this is the normal condition in the moving cyclones and
anti-cyclones of the eastern United States. As the light broken lines
represent the axes of the anti-cyclone and cyclone up to 3000 metres,
it is seen that at this level the temperature at the place of maximum
pressure is probably higher than at the place of minimum pressure,
although this is not true for a vertical column of air above the
earth.
Fig. 9 gives the positions of equal humidities on successive days,
saturated and cloudy areas being indicated by crossed shading, and
less humidity by single ruling. From the laws of thermo-dynamics the
unshaded curves should represent descending currents, and the shaded
portions ascending ones. In the first case, increased warmth and a
lower relative humidity are produced in the descent to a lower
altitude; in the last case, cooling, increasing relative humidity, and
condensation are produced by expansion in the ascent to a higher
altitude. Consequently, two regions of descending air are indicated,
one in the centre of the anti-cyclone, the other in the centre of the
cyclone.
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