Published on 31 Jan 2025
Temperature inversion is a meteorological condition where warmer air traps cooler air near the surface, affecting air quality and weather. Under normal conditions, temperature usually decreases with height.
Ideal conditions for temperature inversion
Clear Skies: Absence of clouds allows for more efficient radiational cooling at the surface, contributing to the formation of inversion.
Light Winds: Minimal horizontal wind movement prevents the mixing of air masses and allows the establishment of a stable layer.
Stable Atmosphere: Under high-pressure systems, the atmosphere tends to be more stable, promoting the development and persistence of temperature inversions.
Night-time: Inversions often form during the night when the ground loses heat rapidly, leading to a cooling of the air near the surface.
Valley Locations: Valleys can enhance the development of inversions as cool, dense air settles in low-lying areas.
Snow-Covered Ground: Snow-covered surfaces contribute to enhanced radiational cooling, facilitating the formation of inversions.
Urban Areas: Human activities, such as industrial processes and heating, can locally contribute to inversion development in urban areas.
Types of temperature inversions
Radiation Inversion: Clear, calm nights allow rapid radiational cooling at the surface, creating a layer of cooler air near the ground.
Frontal Inversion: Forms along frontal boundaries, where a warm air mass overrides a cooler air mass, creating a stable layer.
Subsidence Inversion: Result of subsiding air in high-pressure systems, creating a layer of warm air aloft and trapping cooler air below.
Mountain/Valley Inversion: Common in mountainous regions, where night time cooling in valleys creates inversions, trapping cold air below warmer air.
Effects of temperature inversions
Poor Air Quality: Inversions trap pollutants near the surface, leading to the accumulation of pollutants, especially in urban areas.
Stable Atmospheric Conditions: Suppresses the development of convective processes, limiting cloud formation and precipitation.
Temperature Extremes: Colder temperatures trapped near the surface, especially during clear nights in valleys.
Impact on Agriculture: Frost formation and altered microclimates affecting crops and vegetation.
Fog formation: Moisture trapped beneath the inversion layer can lead to the formation of fog.
Geography
Inversion of temperature
Ideal conditions for temperature inversion
Types of temperature inversions
Effects of temperature inversions
General Studies Paper 1
Physical Geography
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