Why do temperatures decrease as the area rises above sea level?

Weather of Arabia - Does the region's rise affect the temperature? The answer is yes. But it is important to remember that temperature can vary for a variety of reasons including shade, sun, the presence of nearby buildings, and cooler air descending into valleys because it is heavier than warm air.

All of these things and more can affect the temperature, and in general, temperatures decrease by about 6.5 degrees Celsius for every 1000 meters of altitude , and this rate may vary somewhat from one place to another on the surface of the earth, and from one season to another.

But why do temperatures drop as we go up?

In short, the farther away you are from Earth, the less dense the atmosphere becomes, and the overall heat content of the system is directly related to the amount of matter present, so the air is cooler at higher altitudes.

Scientific American explains it this way: “Atmospheric pressure is simply the weight of the air pressing down on you from above. The higher you go, the less air there is above you and so the pressure drops. As pressure decreases, air molecules spread out more, as the air undergoes expansion to keep Size, cool.

For more details, the temperature in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the Earth's atmosphere) generally decreases with height, because the troposphere gases absorb very little of the incoming solar radiation. Instead, the earth absorbs this radiation and then heats the tropospheric air by conduction and convection. thermal.

That is, moving away from the effect of solar radiation by rising above the ground is one of the reasons for the decrease in temperature, so that the air in contact with the surface of the earth gets the largest share of that heat, and the air plankton also plays an important role in preventing the ground radiation from rising to the top, as the effect of the air plankton increases as we go down due to its high density.

You may also be interested in: How did the earth have this huge atmosphere?

Could the opposite happen and the temperature rises with altitude instead of falling?

In exceptional cases, sometimes an increase in temperature occurs with height, contrary to the normal condition, but within a short period of time and on a local scale.

• The length of the night in the winter season, so the amount of lost rays exceeds the amount of rays gained, and the surface of the earth cools and the air above it is warmer.
• The sky is free of clouds, so the amount of heat lost by solar radiation is large because there is no objection to its rise.
• The passage of warm air in the area away from the surface of the earth, so that the rising air is warmer than the air in contact with the surface of the earth, or the passage of cold air directly on the surface of the earth, making the air in contact with the surface of the earth colder than the air above it.