Course Name: An Introduction to Climate Dynamics, Variability and Monitoring

Professor Name: Dr. Sayak Banerjee

Department Name: Climate Change Department

Institute Name: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH)

Week- 02

Lecture- 03

FUNDAMENTALS OF ATMOSPHERIC HUMIDITY AND WEATHER VARIABLES

Good morning class and welcome to our continuing lectures on climate dynamics variability
and monitoring. In the previous class we completed our discussion on the important
atmospheric or climatic variable of pressure. Today we look at an equally even if and almost
as important a climatic variable which is atmospheric humidity. Now, what is atmospheric
humidity? In simple words, it's the amount of water vapor that is present in air in a given
location at a given temperature and pressure. So it is the measure of the amount of water
vapour in air and it is an important climatic variable because not only it influences the
amount of precipitation that a certain location will have, it has important impacts on
comfort levels. If you remember, if you see hot and humid conditions are extremely
discomforting for human life compared to drier conditions.

Furthermore, water vapor is a very strong greenhouse gas. So, there is something called a
feedback cycle between the amount of CO2 present in the atmosphere and the amount of
water vapor that is present in the atmosphere as well. And this is a very important thing to
know in terms of figuring out what is the extent of expected global warming due to an
increase in the CO2 emissions. We have to also include in that the change in the water vapor
amount in air to understand the true extent of global warming due to anthropogenic
emissions.

Now the amount of water vapour changes with location and with altitude and this is kind of
intuitively obvious. So for example during the wet season like in June, July in India you will
have extremely humid conditions prevailing in most of India. Whereas during summer or
winter months the amount of humidity in the air decreases significantly. and it also changes
with location. For example, arid regions like Rajasthan have much lower amount of water
vapour present in air compared to humid regions like Assam or coastal regions like Chennai
etc.

It also changes with altitude you will see that as we increase in altitude the ability of air to
hold water vapor decreases. Which is why you have condensation and cloud formation at
higher altitudes, because the water vapor that is being transported through convection cells
from near the sea level get condensed out to form clouds at the higher altitudes and we will
see why that is as well. Now in general air has some amount of water vapor but not a lot. So,
the percentage of water vapor present in air is usually quite low. So, if you remember the
atmospheric composition amounts.

Here, in the water vapor, while the fraction is variable, depends on location, the
approximate amount is 1.7 × 1019 grams, while the total atmosphere is 5 × 1021grams. So,
the percentages are even lower than argon, which is around 0.9 percent. So, it will be a very
mean amount of water vapor present will be around 0.4 percent, 0.1 percent or 0.2 percent
like that, if you compare it with argon. The amount of water vapor concentration in air is
quite low. As a result, you can assume water vapor to behave like an ideal gas at these low
concentration values.

So, this is an important thing to remember that when it's in air, water vapor usually behaves
like an ideal gas. So, the 𝑝∀= 𝑛𝑅𝑇 relationship holds for water vapor as well. So, it behaves
just like any other gas constituent in the atmosphere. Like CO 2, like oxygen, like N2. When
we were discussing the partial volumes, partial pressures, mole fractions, mass fractions, all
of those relationships also hold for water vapor as well.

As a result, you can assume that the total pressure of moist air can be considered to be the
sum of pressure of dry air and the pressure of water vapor. So, if you remember, the total
pressure is the summation of the partial pressures of the individual components. Now,
unlike other components the concentration of water vapor is highly variable with location,
time, seasons etc. Whereas all the other components do not change as significantly with
time location etc. They are well mixed whereas water vapor can evaporate into or condense
out of air so it has a highly variable concentration. So, it is a standard practice to consider
the total pressure of moist air as the partial pressure of dry air which we call Pair.

So, this is dry air containing oxygen, nitrogen, CO2, argon, CO, ozone, etc. Plus the partial
pressure of water vapor which we denote by the variable e. This is basically partial pressure
of water vapor only. We are calling it by the variable e here which is standard practice in
many climatology course textbooks. So e is the partial pressure of water vapor in air and it
is often also called the vapor pressure.

So, when you are hearing the term vapor pressure you should remember that what we are
talking about is the partial pressure of water vapor in the atmosphere at a certain location.
Now, the idea here is at any given temperature and pressure, air can only hold a certain
amount of water vapor and if the concentration of water vapor increases beyond that value,
water vapor starts to condense, that is get converted into liquid, ok. So, if you see that in
normal circumstances in cold winter days. In early morning, when the ground air becomes
very cold, the ability of air to hold water vapor decreases significantly and hence a lot of the
vapor condenses out and form fog, dew, et cetera. So, this is what is the unique thing about
water vapor that unlike other constituents of the atmosphere.
The water vapor can evaporate into the system at certain conditions and condense out of
the system at certain other conditions. And for a given temperature and pressure, there is a
maximum partial pressure of vapor that air can hold. And this maximum ceiling pressure,
partial pressure of vapor is called the saturation vapor pressure es. So, what it means is if
you know what the saturation vapour pressure es is for atmosphere at a given condition
then you are assured that the actual vapour pressure will always be less than es. So, this
term E will always be lower than the saturation vapour pressure es.

At best it can equal es and beyond which time the water will condense out. So, the pressure
will remain stable, vapour pressure will remain stable at es only. Okay, so water begins to
condense out of air and become liquid once the vapor pressure begins to exceed the
saturation vapor pressure. Air is said to be saturated with vapor pressure. So, saturated air
means, air whose vapor pressure has become equal to es.

So, air is said to be saturated with water vapor when the vapor pressure becomes equal to
the saturation vapor pressure for the given temperature. So, we have learned a few things
that the partial pressure of water vapor is called e and it is called the vapor pressure. Air has
a maximum amount up to which it can carry water vapor and the corresponding maximum
partial pressure is the saturation vapor pressure es. Beyond this point water will start to
condense out of air. Air is said to be saturated with water vapor when the vapor pressure
becomes equal to the saturation vapor pressure for the given temperature.

Based on this, we can define a very important weather variable that you hear a lot in
weather stations. It is the relative humidity RH. It is the ratio of the actual vapor pressure of
𝑒
air to the saturation vapor pressure at that given air temperature. So, the ratio 𝑒 is basically
𝑠
our relative humidity. It's the ratio of the actual vapor pressure of air at that given location
by the saturation vapor pressure of that air at that location.
𝑒
So, , this represents how much maximum vapor the air at that condition can hold and E
𝑒𝑠
𝑒
represents how much vapor it is actually holding. So, that is 𝑒 which is given as relative
𝑠
humidity. And obviously relative humidity can be between 0 and 1. It can be expressed in
percentage terms as 0% to 100% as well. So, when in weather reports you hear relative
humidity of 60%, you know that the vapor pressure of air at that location is 0.

6 times the saturation vapor pressure at that given condition. Okay. Now how do we
evaluate this saturation vapor pressure? So, there is a quite a well-developed theory in
thermodynamics which can help us evaluate the saturation vapor pressure for any
temperature of the atmosphere. We will not look at the theory in detail, we will just look at
the results. So, this is an approximate solution of what is called the Clausius-Clapeyron
equation.

𝐿𝑣 𝑀𝑤 1 1
𝑒𝑠 ≅ 611exp [ ( − )]
𝑅𝑢 273 𝑇
From which the solution is coming. This holds relatively well near the sea level. So, it will
not hold very well at very high altitudes, but this is a reasonable expression that can work.
So, here the saturation vapor pressure at a given temperature T of air is almost equals to
611 into exponential of this term here. So let us explain this term clearly. LV is the latent
heat of vaporization. It's the amount of heat that is required to evaporate 1 kg of liquid
water into water vapor. This is the latent heat of vaporization and this LV term is around 2.5
into 10 to the power 6 joules per kg.

So, you require 2.5 mega joules of heat to evaporate 1 kg of liquid water into water vapor.
That is your latent heat of vaporization. The molecular weight of water is Mw.

It is 0.018 kgs per mole. So it's around, so molecular weight of water is around 18 grams per
mole. So it's around 0.018 kg per mole. Okay.

So the units are very important. This is in joules per kg. This is in kgs per mole. So you have
to remember the units. Ru is the universal gas constant, which is joules per mole Kelvin.

Okay. Again, you are expressing it in this format, joules per mole Kelvin, universal gas
constant. Okay. This is 273, basically it's the 0 degree centigrade, okay. And this is the
temperature of air in Kelvins. So, if the temperature of air is 20 degree centigrade, in Kelvins
it's 20 plus 273.15, right. So, that is approximately 273, okay. So 20 plus 273 is 293 Kelvin.
So you will put 293 here. So obviously 273 represents 0 degree centigrade in this context.
And this entire expression, the total unit is Pascals.

Which is Newton per meter square. So if you keep these units, then the expression inside
will be unitless and you will get Pascals as the total unit. And what is 611? It's the saturation
vapor pressure of air at 273 kelvins. So at 273 kelvins, the saturation vapor pressure is 611
Pascals and this is what is given here. And you can see this is the fact, if you set temperature
T as 273 here, then exponential this term becomes 0, e to the power 0 is 1, so es at 273
Kelvin is 611, so that is what we are putting here. And note that this expression is strictly
valid at sea level because that is where the atmospheric pressure is 1 atmosphere.

In general, this terminology will also be dependent on the pressure of air. So, this is near or
close to sea level. It is reasonably okay if you use it at somewhat higher altitudes, but not at
very high levels of the atmosphere. Note that this is basically coming from an integration of
this expression, the general Clausius-Clapeyron equation at sea level, which is,

𝐿𝑣 𝑀𝑤 𝑑𝑇
𝑑(ln 𝑒𝑠 ) =
𝑅𝑢 𝑇 2

If you integrate this at sea level, you are getting this expression here.

All right. This is just for information. This is the expression we will be using most of the
times. All right. So suppose we plot this expression against pressure for various
temperatures of air. What kind of an expression we are getting? So this red line is the plot
for es using this expression here.
All right. Here at the bottom temperature is given in terms of degree centigrade. So,
remember this is 273, 283 kelvins, 293 kelvins, 303 kelvins, this is 263 kelvins, etc. Here it is
plotted in terms of degree centigrade for easier understanding. And the y axis is the vapor
pressure in millibars. Remember 1 millibar is 100 pascals, so it is the same as hectopascals,
ok.

So this is basically 3000 pascals, this is 1000 pascals, this is 500 pascals like that. We have
measured, usually it is measured in either hectopascals or millibars, so this is the unit that
has been used. And this is the plot of es. So how can we use this graphical plot if we want to
use this, ok. Firstly, we note that as the temperature increases, es is rising exponentially.

So, the saturation vapor pressure is rising in an exponential fashion with increasing air
temperature. So, this is the reason why air at higher temperatures can hold significantly
more water vapor than air at lower temperatures. And we will discuss this further during
the class. So colder air has less capacity to hold water as compared to hot air. Now suppose
you take a certain temperature say 10 degrees centigrade.

Now if you move up at 10 degrees, it is around how much? Around between 15 to 16

So, the area below this curve is where the actual vapour pressures of air can reside. This
side is air cannot hold vapor pressure values beyond the saturation vapor line. So this
region, there is no actual values that exist in this region. All the variable values that vapor
pressure of air can have lies to the lower, at the below this saturation vapor line. So this part
of the curve is unphysical, this part of the curve is physical.

Any state of air below this line you have relative humidity less than 1. So, it is called
unsaturated air, it is called the unsaturated region. While this line gives the points or the
state of air which are saturated air where relative humidity is 100 percent. So, for example,
at 20 degrees if you go up it is around say 24 millibars. So, saturated air state is 24 millibars,
but if the actual air vapour pressure is 20 millibars say, it is in the unsaturated region.

So, this line is the saturated zone and this area here is the unsaturated air region. So, let us
see how to use this plot. Consider this point A here, which is in the unsaturated domain. And
the TA is 20 degree centigrade and EA which you can see here is around 12 millibars. So if
you drop a horizontal line here you will get around 12 millibars.

12 or 13 millibars it does not matter, and remember 12 millibars is 1200 pascals. So this is
the actual vapor pressure and this gives the state A of a certain moist air person. At this
point the saturation vapor pressure is 24 millibars and is given by point C. So, es at the
temperature TA which is 20 degree centigrade is equal to E at point C which is 24 millibars.
Then the relative humidity is the vapor pressure at point A divided by the vapor pressure
given by point C, which is 12 by 24 or 0.5.

This is the relative humidity of a parcel of air at state A. Now, suppose this air is cooling
down. Suppose day has come into night and the air parcel is beginning to cool down due to
radiation into the space. And as it cools, Remember, the temperature of the air is
decreasing. So the cooling process can be written as this line AB. So air is cooling down and
its temperature is decreasing from 20 degrees down, down, down, down till it hits the point
B which is on the saturation vapor pressure line.

This point B, the temperature is 9 degrees centigrade. So this is 9 degrees centigrade. At this
point, this parcel of air has become saturated because it has hit the saturation vapour
pressure line. So, suppose you take a parcel of air with a certain amount of water vapour,
the temperature at which this parcel of air becomes saturated if it is cooled is called the dew
point temperature. So, this point, the temperature corresponding to point B, 9 degree
centigrade is the dew point temperature of the air parcel at state A. Because if the air parcel
were cooled up to 9 degree centigrade, it would hit the saturation vapor line and it would
become saturated.

So, at this point, Remember, there is no loss of water vapor from the parcel of air because it
is still in the unsaturated region. So, the partial pressure of water vapor remains the same.
So, A and B is horizontal. So, it remains 12 millibars. What is happening is the state B at 9
degree centigrade, 12 millibars is the saturation vapor pressure.

So, EB is equal to EA equal to 14 millibars. This is 12 millibars, sorry about that. EB equals to
EA equals to 12 millibars, all right. with TB as 9 degree centigrade. So at state B, the relative
humidity is 1 and air has become fully saturated. This temperature B is called the dew point
temperature corresponding to the vapor pressure of 12 millibars.

All right. Now, what would happen if the vapor is cooled further down? See, remember
anything beyond this curve is unphysical. So what will happen is vapor will start to
condense out of your parcel of air. Okay. And what will happen in this condition is that
further cooling the state of air will move along this curve.

Okay. So suppose we cool this further to 0 degree centigrade. Okay. To certain points D here
which is at 0 degree centigrade. Okay. So what is happening is water vapor is condensing
into liquid and that liquid is coming out of the air parcel consistently. So, this is the
condensation process.

You see refrigerators, fog formation and etc. And hence the partial pressure or the vapor
pressure falls and it is falling along this curve. So, at 0 degree centigrade, it remains
saturated at all times during this cooling process. So, once it hits the saturation vapor
pressure, further cooling will always cause the line to go along this saturation vapor
pressure curve. So, at 0 degrees, if you see, you are reaching again at 6.1 millibars, which is
the saturation vapor pressure at 0 degree centigrade. So, the rest of water vapor has
condensed out of the air parcel so that the partial pressure of vapor is 6.1 millibars at 0
degree centigrade. So, any further cooling will cause water to start condensing out of air in
the form of dew, mist, fog or cloud water droplets and the process part will be along the
saturation vapor pressure line. So, this is how we can interpret this sort of a curve. So, now
we will discuss something called the humidity ratio or the mixing ratio omega.

It is sometimes called humidity ratio, it is sometimes called the mixing ratio and the variable
is omega. It's the ratio of the mass of water vapor present in a parcel of moist air divided by
the mass of dry air in that given parcel of moisture.

Okay. So if you take say 100 kgs of moist air parcel somewhere. Okay. How many kgs of it is
water vapour? How many kgs of it is everything else that is dry air? That ratio is called the
humidity ratio or the mixing ratio. And we can also express this in terms of the partial
pressures. So this is equal to 0.622 into the partial vapour pressure divided by the partial
pressure of dry air.
𝑚𝑤 𝑒
𝜔= = 0.622
𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑃𝑎𝑖𝑟

Remember the total pressure is partial pressure of dry air plus vapor pressure. And here
you are getting the vapor pressure by the partial pressure of dry air into 0.622. Now this
0.622 is nothing but the ratio of the molecular weights of dry air and water vapor.
𝑒𝑠
𝜔𝑠 = 0.622
𝑃𝑎𝑖𝑟

We will see this in the later section in the next class. So, the ratio of the mass of water to the
mass of dry air is proportional to the partial pressure of water vapor by the partial pressure
of dry air multiplied by this conversion constant 0.622. Suppose we have a saturated parcel
of air. For that saturated parcel this e becomes equal to es and this is called the saturation
humidity ratio omega s. The mass of water that that the maximum mass of water that a
certain parcel of air can hold is the mass of water under saturation conditions that is M W at
saturation condition by the mass of dry air.

That gives the saturation humidity ratio omega s which is given by 0.622 into es by the
partial pressure of dry air. So, you have this omega and this omega s is the saturation
humidity ratio. The ratio of these two assuming that the mass of dry air remains constant is
𝑒
the relative humidity . So, what that means is clearly that you can evaluate the fraction,
𝑒𝑠
the amount of water vapor present in a certain parcel of air using the variables E and es that
we have introduced in the previous section.

So, we will continue discussion in the next lecture. So, thank you for today and see you in
the next class.