Why are higher altitudes colder?

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-20 02:05pm

When you're on top of a mountain it's cold, but why? Theres less
atmosphere, right? So that means conduction of heat is harder (closer to
like it is in space) and you're also at a higher altitude so you do not enter
into earths shadow as soon as you would if youre on the ground, so
theoretically daylight is longer. Why then are mountains so cold? Air
currents?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-07-20 02:22pm

Dude, it's variations of the extreams

Really, it's hot as Heck up here when in full view of the sun, but as soon as night falls, it's very cold.

Winter is also colder up here.

Also the less atmosphere the more you need to drink to preserve your fluid levels.

I am guessing you didn't expec an answer from someone who lives at 1 to 1 1/2 miles above sea level?

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-20 02:23pm

ahh so it DOES get fuckin hot then?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-07-20 02:26pm

Let's just say this, my AC is on full blast

It rained not to long ago, and it's gone from 108*, to 36*, back to tripple digets in the last 12 hours.

SpacedTeddyBear · Post by **SpacedTeddyBear** » 2003-07-20 02:26pm

Temperature of a gas ( In this case the atmosphere) is directly proportional to the pressure of the atmosphere at your current elevation. Or it can be expressed as The ideal gas law which is PV=nRT where P is the pressure, V is the Volume of the gas, n is number of molecules, R is the gas constant, and T is Temperature. When you solve for T, you'll find that the temperature is directly proportional to the pressure and volume. If you watch the news and the weather portion comes on, warm temperatures are on high pressure fronts, while cooler pressures are on low pressure fronts.

If I have made any mistakes, please point them out nicely.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-07-20 02:29pm

Heat factor is that we don't have as much cloud cover and O3 to protect us as you flatlanders do. So when the sun heats up those rocks they get hot real fast.

The snow will still be on the ground (It's like concrete), but it will be over a hundred up here. (That's farenheit for you metric types who are having heart attacks, and about to refute me)

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-07-20 02:36pm

Low air pressure means heat does not transfer as well, and that in turn means that the sunlight doesn't transfer as much heat to the air, as it is reflected off the ground, it simply flys back into space, that's why high mountains are snowcapped.
Heat is reflected more readily, it's different for different altitudes, but when you're at Yosemite's level, you have huge variance in temp, at our level it is temperate because the heat stays mainly down here, and at very high altitudes, you get extremely low temperatures.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-20 02:40pm

aha. gotcha, thanks

this was puzzling me for the past week.

yosbear, where are you to be at such high altitudes?

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-07-20 03:16pm

You are all wrong. It does not always get colder as you asscend into the atmosphere. Once you get above the tropapause, it gets warmer.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-07-20 03:26pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:You are all wrong. It does not always get colder as you asscend into the atmosphere. Once you get above the tropapause, it gets warmer.

oh yeah.. bugger.

wtf is that shit then that makes it happen?

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-07-20 03:34pm

Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe, sixth edition wrote:In the troposphere, the energy source is the ground, so the temperature falls off with altitude. Higher temperatures in the other layers result from direct absorption of solar ultraviolet and x-rays.

Basically, in the troposphere (where we live) temperature decreases with altitude. It increases in the Stratosphere, decreases again in the Mesosphere, and increases in the Ionosphere.

SoX · Post by **SoX** » 2003-07-22 01:28pm

SpacedTeddyBear wrote:Or it can be expressed as The ideal gas law which is PV=nRT

Heehee,, pervnert.... my favourite of the gas equations,,is so ideal,,and sounds funny.

Hasler · Post by **Hasler** » 2003-07-22 07:33pm

actually when you get abve the the trop its not really hotter temp wise. The molecules are moveing faster hence the inversion but it is still roughly -45 c. Problem is the molecules are moveing faster but have less to hit into so you dont get the friction. Atmosphere charts that show "Temp" are actually showing the speed at which the molecules are moveing.