Humidity
What is humidity?
What is relative humidity?
How does temperature affect the water-vapor content of air?
What happens when air becomes saturated?
How can unsaturated air become saturated?
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Humidity, the amount of water vapor (or moisture) in the air. It is the most variable characteristic of the atmosphere and constitutes a major factor in climate and weather. A brief treatment of humidity follows. For full treatment, see climate: Atmospheric humidity and precipitation.
Role of water vapor
Atmospheric water vapour is an important factor in weather for several reasons. It regulates air temperature by absorbing thermal radiation both from the Sun and Earth. Moreover, the higher the vapor content of the atmosphere, the more latent energy is available for the generation of storms. In addition, water vapor is the ultimate source of all forms of condensation and precipitation.
Water vapor enters the atmosphere primarily by the evaporation of water from Earth’s surface, both land and sea. The water-vapor content of the atmosphere varies from place to place and from time to time because the humidity capacity of air is determined by temperature. At 30 °C (86 °F), for example, a volume of air can contain up to 4 percent water vapor. At –40 °C (–40 °F), however, it can hold no more than 0.2 percent.
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- Absolute humidity: the density of water vapor in the air, which is often expressed as grams of water per cubic meter of air.
- Specific humidity: the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the volume of air in a given parcel of air. Specific humidity is a measure that does not change with atmospheric pressure and temperature.
- Relative humidity: the ratio of the actual amount of water in a volume of air at a given temperature and pressure to the maximum amount of water vapor that that volume of air could hold if it were fully saturated at that temperature and pressure.
Relative humidity
When a volume of air at a given temperature holds the maximum amount of water vapor, the air is said to be saturated. Relative humidity is the water-vapor content of the air relative to its content at saturation. Saturated air, for example, has a relative humidity of 100 percent. Near Earth’s surface the relative humidity very rarely falls below 30 percent. Unsaturated air can become saturated in three ways—by evaporation of water into the air; by the mixing of two masses of air of different temperatures, both initially unsaturated but saturated as a mixture; or, most commonly, by cooling the air, which reduces its capacity to hold moisture as water vapor sometimes to the point that the water vapor it holds is sufficient for saturation.
Atmospheric cooling can be brought about in a number of ways, as by the arrival of a cooler air mass or by the movement of an air mass up a mountain side. If the cooling continues beyond the point of saturation, and provided there are sufficient condensation nuclei in the air around which tiny cloud or fog droplets can form, the excess moisture will condense out of the air as cloud or fog droplets or various forms of precipitation at Earth’s surface. The condensation process, however, releases latent heat, which may help the cloud to grow upward, by warming the humid air, causing it to rise, or, conversely, may evaporate the clouds as the warmed air falls below the saturation point and is able to absorb more water vapor. When clouds form, however, they block out some solar radiation and thereby have a net effect of cooling the air.
Absolute humidity
Care must be taken to distinguish between the relative humidity of the air and its moisture content or density, which is known as absolute humidity. The air masses above the tropical deserts such as the Sahara and Mexican deserts contain vast quantities of moisture as invisible water vapor. Because of the high temperatures, however, relative humidities are very low. Conversely, air in very high latitudes, because of low temperatures, is frequently saturated even though the absolute amount of moisture in the air is low.