In to make experimental balloon ascents in Europe,somet surprised t got as temperature drops about3 degrees Fa you climb. Logic o indicate tt to a source of , t of tion ist you are not really getting nearer ty-to move a couple of t closer to it is like taking one stepcloser to a busralia o smell smoke.
takes us back to tion of ty of molecules in tmosphere.
Sunligoms. It increases te at e to one anot. ’s really excited atoms you feel. them.
Air is deceptive stuff. Even at sea level, end to t y of bulk, and t bulk often exerts itself. As a marinescientist named yville te more tury ago: “e sometimes find er, t nearly on ly piled upon us during t, but ion and buoyancy, since it requires a little less exertion to move our bodies in t feel crus extra on of pressure is t be crus is made mostly ofincompressible fluids, w.
But get air in motion, as iff breeze, and you it oget 5,200 million milliontons of air around us—25 million tons for every square mile of t—a notinconsequential volume. millions of tons of atmosp at ty orforty miles an ’s limbs snap and roof tiles go flying. As Antes, a typical may consist of 750 million tons of cold air pinnedbeneatons of is at timesmeteorologically exciting.
Certainly tage of energy in torm, ited, can contain an amount of energy equivalent to four days’ use ofelectricity for ted States. In t conditions, storm clouds can rise to sof six to ten miles and contain updrafts and dos of one en side by side, to fly ternalturmoil particles rical c entirelyunderstood ter particles tend to become positively co be ed by aircurrents to top of ticles linger at ting negativecively cicles o ruso tivelyco anyt gets in t of ligravels at270,000 miles an t to a decidedly crisp 50,000 degreesFa, several times ter t any one moment 1,800torms are in progress around t across t every second about a ning bolts the sky is a lively place.
Muc goes on up t. Jet streams, usuallylocated about 30,000 to 35,000