Concept of water vapour and saturation
• Water vapour presents in the air is known as humidity. The
percentage of water vapour in the atmosphere is highly
variable and changes according to season, land and seas
presence, but it never exceeds 4 % by volume in the
atmosphere.
• Water vapour decreases with height. Humidly mainly
depends air temperature. Water vapour in the air condenses
and takes different forms. Humidity in the atmosphere is
conveyed by different terms.
• Partial vapour pressure : When water vapour mixes with
other gases of atmosphere, it exerts a pressure in all
directions like other gases. This partial pressure is known as
partial vapour pressure.
Saturated vapour pressure
• At a given temperature, air holds certain amount of water
vapour which is given by pressure at that temperature. When
air contains all the moisture it can hold to its maximum limit,
it is called saturated air, otherwise unsaturated. The vapour
pressure exerted at this temperature is called saturated
vapour pressure.
• When air is completely saturated, then there will be no
evaporation and then dry and wet bulb temperatures will be
same. Saturation capacity of air increases with temperature
and vice-versa.
Atmospheric Humidity
• Humidity is a general term which refers to atmospheric water
vapour content. The concentration of water vapour in the
atmosphere may vary from 0 to 4 %. Moisture in atmosphere
is added by the process of evaporation or evapotranspiration
from the water bodies, glaciers, snow caps and plants. Hardly
1 % of the water, present over earth ,can be retained in the
atmosphere at a time.
• But this plays an important role in generating weather. All the
weather phenomena like storm, cyclone, frost, rain, snow etc.
are related to humidity or water vapour.
Expression of Atmospheric Humidity
• Absolute humidity: It is the mass of water vapour
present in unit volume of air and expressed as
grams/cubic meter.(g per cubic meter).
• Specific Humidity : Weight of water vapour per unit
weight of moist air and expressed as grams per kg of
moist air.
• Saturation deficit (SD): Indicates the moisture falling
short to saturate the given mass of air at a given
temperature. It is expressed as
SD=SVP at t0C – AVP
= SVP at t0C –SVP at dew point, it can be also written
RH ∗SVP at temperature t degree celcius
as SD=SVP at t C –
0
mm or mb
100
• Mixing Ratio: Weight of water vapour per unit
weight of dry air and expressed as grams of
water vapour per kg. of dry air.
• Relative humidity (RH): Percent ratio of mass
of water vapour actually present in
atmosphere to the mass required to saturate
it (at same temperature)
SVPatdewpoint
RH= X100
SVPatairtemp
• Vapour pressure (mm or [Link] pa.) =The
partial pressure exerted by the water vapour
in the atmosphere.
• Dew point temperature: The temperature at
which the water vapour actually present in
atmosphere is sufficient to saturate it. It is the
temperature at which actual vapour pressure
equals to saturation vapour presure.
Importance of Water vapour
• Controls heat budget
• Provide energy for driving cyclones & storms
• Controls PET & Evaporation
• Controls the susceptibility of crops to pest &
diseases
• Pathogenocity of the Pathogens
• Photosynthesis
Instruments for measurements
• Dry and wet bulb hygrometer
• Hair hygrometer
• Assmann’s psychrometer
• Whirling psychrometer