Atmospheric Thermodynamics provides a comprehensive treatment of a subject that can often be intimidating. The text analyses real-life problems and applications of the subject, alongside of guiding the reader through the fundamental basics and covering the first and second laws and the ideal gas law, followed by an emphasis on moist processes in Earth's atmosphere. Water in all its phases is a critical component of weather and the Earth's climate system.
With user-friendly chapters that include energy conservation and water and its transformations, the authors write with a willingness to expose assumptions and approximations usually absent in other textbooks. History is woven into the text to provide a context for the time evolution of thermodynamics and its place in atmospheric science and demonstrating how physical reasoning leads to correct explanations of everyday phenomena. Many of the experiments described were done using inexpensive instruments to take advantage of the earth's atmosphere as a freely accessible thermodynamics library.
This second edition provides updated treatments of atmospheric measurements and substantially expanded sections that include atmospheric applications of the first and second laws and energy exchange between humans and their atmospheric environment. With 400+ thought provoking problems and 350 references with annotated notes and further reading suggestions, this second edition provides a basic understanding of the fundamentals of this subject while still being a comprehensive reference guide for those working in the field of atmospheric and environmental sciences.
Author(s): Craig Bohren, Bruce Albrecht
Edition: 2
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 603
City: Oxford
cover
titlepage
copyright
dedication
Preface to Second Edition
Acknowledgments
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments
Contents
1 Introduction: Conservation of Energy
1.1 Thermodynamics: A Science of Measurable Quantities
1.2 Conservation of Energy in Mechanics
1.3 Conservation of Energy: A System of Point Molecules
1.4 A Few Examples of Energy Conservation
*1.5 Kinetic Energy Exchanges in Molecular Interactions (Collisions)
1.6 Working and Heating
An Example of Working
1.7 Some Necessary Thermodynamic Concepts and Jargon
1.8 Thermodynamic Internal Energy and the First Law
Irreverent Thoughts about Heat
How Does One Measure ``Amount of Heat?''
Description and Explanation
A Few Parting Shots
Annotated References and Suggestions for Further Reading
Problems
2 Ideal Gas Law: Pressure and Absolute Temperature
2.1 Gas Pressure and Absolute Temperature: What Are They and What Are They Not?
Ideal Gas Law
A Perspective on Units
Pressure Measurement: Barometer and Manometer
Temperature Scales and Thermometers
Atmospheric Temperature Measurements
Interpretations, Operations, and Explanations
The Nature of Statistical Laws
A Brief History of the Gas Law
2.2 Pressure Decrease with Height: Continuum Interpretation
Pressure–Height Relationships: Thickness
2.3 Pressure Decrease with Height: Molecular Interpretation
2.4 The Maxwell–Boltzmann Distribution of Molecular Speeds
Why Don't Air Molecules Escape to Space?
2.5 Intermolecular Separation, Mean Free Path, and Intermolecular Collision Rate
Mean Free Path
Intermolecular Collision Rate
Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium
2.6 Is the Pressure Gradient in a Gas a Fundamental Force of Nature?
2.7 Surface Pressure and the Weight of the Atmosphere
Flat Earthers Take Note!
Why Aren't We Crushed by Airplanes Flying Overhead?
2.8 The Atmosphere Is a Mixture of Gases: Dalton's Law
Mean Molecular Weight
Annotated References and Suggestions for Further Reading
Problems
3 Specific Heats and Enthalpy: Adiabatic Processes
3.1 A Critique of the Mathematics of Thermodynamics
``Those Accursed Differentials''
Differentials and Infinitesimals
Are Differentials Necessary in Thermodynamics?
Pure and Impure Thermodynamics: The Indicator Diagram
Impossible Processes
3.2 Specific Heats and Enthalpy
Is the Heat Capacity of Liquid Water Extraordinarily High?
An Incompressibility Paradox: The Perils of Idealization
Enthalpy of the (Hydrostatic) Atmosphere
3.3 Adiabatic Processes: Poisson's Relations
3.4 (Dry) Adiabatic Processes in the Atmosphere
Do Pistons and Cylinders Inhabit the Atmosphere?
3.5 Stability and Buoyancy
Buoyancy
Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate and Stability
Parcel Oscillations
3.6 Specific Heats of Gases
The Ratio of Working to Heating at Constant Pressure
3.7 Heat Capacities of Mixtures of Gases
Water Vapor Demystified
Isobaric, Adiabatic Mixing of Moist Parcels
3.8 Atmospheric Applications of the First Law
3.9 Chemical Reactions and Temperature Changes
3.10 Residence Time of the Internal Translational Kinetic Energy of Earth's Atmosphere
Annotated References and Suggestions for Further Reading
Problems
4 Entropy
4.1 Entropy of an Ideal Gas
Entropy Change in a Free Expansion
Entropy Changes upon Heating and Cooling
The Second Law and Stability
Entropy of Mixtures: Entropy of Mixing and the ``Gibbs Paradox''
Entropy Changes upon Mixing Two Gases with Different Temperatures and Pressures
An Entropic Derivation of Joule's Law
Entropy and Disorder: A Persistent Swindle
Microscopic Interpretation of Entropy
4.2 Entropy Changes of Liquids and Isotropic Solids
4.3 Atmospheric Applications of the Second Law
Maximum Entropy: Arbitrary Temperature Distribution in a Solid Slab
Entropy Maximization in the Atmosphere
Thermodynamic Efficiency: The Carnot Cycle
Refrigerators and Coefficient of Performance
Thermodynamic Efficiencies of Real Engines
Lapse Rate in Water
Annotated References and Suggestions for Further Reading
Problems
5 Water and Its Transformations
5.1 Evaporation and Condensation of Water Vapor
5.2 Measures of Water Vapor in Air
Dew, Frost, Defrosters, Dehumidifiers, and Swamp Coolers
5.3 The Clausius–Clapeyron Equation
Other Enthalpy Differences
Mantras and Misconceptions about Phase Transitions
Entropy and Enthalpy Differences in Phase Changes
Temperature Dependence of Enthalpy of Vaporization
Temperature Dependence of Saturation Vapor Pressure: A More Accurate Equation
Difference between the Saturation Vapor Pressure above Ice and above Subcooled Water at the Same Temperature
Dew Point Depression and Human Comfort in Hot, Humid Weather
Lapse Rate of the Boiling Point
Evaporative Cooling and Condensational Warming
5.4 van der Waals Equation of State
Must a Liquid Boil in Order to Evaporate?
Can a Solid Boil Before It Melts?
Departures from Ideality According to the van der Waals Equation
* The Maxwell Construction and Saturation Vapor Pressure
An Overview of the Many Successes of the van der Waals Equation
5.5 Phase Diagrams: Liquid–Vapor, Liquid–Vapor–Solid, Triple Point
5.6 Free Energy
5.7 Effect of Air Pressure on Saturation Vapor Pressure
5.8 Lowering of Vapor Pressure by Dissolution
5.9 Air in Water: Henry's Law
Change in Saturation Vapor Pressure with Total Pressure
5.10 Size Dependence of Vapor Pressure: Water Droplets, Solution Droplets, and Bubbles
Droplet and Bubble Vapor Pressure: Physical Interpretation
Mechanical Equilibrium of Balloons, Corneas, Droplets, Bubbles: The Young–Laplace Equation and the Road to Surface Tension
Equilibrium Vapor Pressure of Droplets and Bubbles: A Physical Interpretation
The Kelvin Equation and the Difficult Birth of Cloud Droplets
Vapor Pressure of Solution Droplets
Boiling Demystified and More Heresy
Annotated References and Suggestions for Further Reading
Problems
6 Moist Air and Clouds
6.1 Precipitable Water in the Atmosphere
6.2 Lapse Rate of the Dew Point: Level of Cloud Formation
6.3 Density of Moist Air: Virtual Temperature
6.4 Wet-Bulb Temperature
Is the Temperature of a Wet Bulb the Wet-Bulb Temperature?
Humidity Measurements
6.5 Lapse Rate for Isentropic Ascent of a Saturated Parcel
Equivalent Potential Temperature and Wet-Bulb Potential Temperature
An Overview of Temperatures, Real and Fictitious
6.6 Thermodynamic Diagrams
A Smattering of History
Skew-T–log p Diagram
Tephigram
Other Diagrams
6.7 Stability and Cloud Formation
Entrainment
6.8 Mixing Clouds
6.9 Cloud Formation on Ascent and Descent
Annotated References and Suggestions for Further Reading
Problems
7 Energy, Momentum, and Mass Transfer
7.1 Energy Transfer by Thermal Conduction
Fourier Thermal Conduction Law
Thermal Resistance
Convective Transfer of Energy
Conductivity of Gases: A Few Fallacies Dispelled
The Effective Conductivity of Porous Materials
The Skin Diver's Fallacy
Newton's Law of Cooling: A Study in Historical Error Propagation
Freezing of Lakes
Radiative Energy Transfer
Radiation and Convection Combined: Dew and Frost Formation
To Insulate or Not to Insulate?
Radiation in Porous Media
Newton's Law of Cooling According to Newton
*Thermometers and Soils as Low-pass Filters
Chilliness at High Altitudes: Forced Convection
Cooling in Air and Water: Free Convection
7.2 Momentum Transfer: Viscosity
7.3 Mass Transfer: Diffusion
Diffusion Coefficient
The Nonexistence of Still Air
Growth of Cloud Droplets
Annotated References and Suggestions for Further Reading
Problems
Selected Physical Constants
Saturation Vapor Pressure over Water
Reference
Bibliography
Index
