Equivalent temperature

Equivalent temperature is the temperature of an air parcel from which we would have completely extracted its water vapor content by an adiabatic process.

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Air contains water vapor that has been evaporated into it from liquid sources (lakes, sea, etc...). The energy needed to do that has been taken from the air. Taking a volume of air at temperature T and mixing ratio of r , drying it by condensation will restitute energy to the airmass. This will depend on the latent heat release as:

r

 : latent heat of evaporation (2400 kJ/kg {at 25C} to 2600 kJ/kg {at -40C})

 : specific heat at constant pressure for air ( 1004 J/(kg·K))

Tables exist for exact values of the last two coefficients.

Bibliographie

• M K Yau and R.R. Rogers, Short Course in Cloud Physics, Third Edition, published by Butterworth-Heinemann, January 1, 1989, 304 pages. EAN 9780750632157 ISBN 0-7506-3215-1

• J.V. Iribarne and W.L. Godson, Atmospheric Thermodynamics, published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland, 1973, 222 pages