Equilibria in the Troposphere

TL;DR

This paper explores different types of equilibrium in the troposphere, introducing gravito-chemical potentials analogous to electro-chemical potentials, and characterizes atmospheric states by these potentials.

Contribution

It introduces the concepts of gravito-chemical and gravito-thermo-chemical potentials and links them to atmospheric equilibrium states.

Findings

Isothermal atmosphere has constant gravito-chemical potential.

Well-mixed atmosphere has constant gravito-thermo-chemical potential.

Linear temperature decrease corresponds to equilibrium state.

Abstract

We show that various types of equilibrium play an important part in the behaviour of the troposphere. In analogy to the electro-chemical potential (well-known in solid-state physics and electro-chemistry) a gravito-chemical potential and a gravito-thermo-chemical potential, as well as the corresponding equilibria are introduced. We shall show that (a) the isothermal atmosphere is characterized by a constant gravito-chemical potential; (b) the well-mixed or adiabatic atmosphere is characterized by a constant gravito-thermo-chemical potential. Thus, a linear decrease of the temperature with the vertical coordinate corresponds to a state of equilibrium.