Humidity, condensation and clouds
Water-vapour amount and relative humidity are distinct; relative humidity compares vapour pressure with a specified saturation value at the current temperature.
Key knowledge
Water-vapour amount and relative humidity are distinct; relative humidity compares vapour pressure with a specified saturation value at the current temperature. Cooling an air parcel can bring it toward saturation. Ordinary cloud-droplet formation depends on suitable aerosol nuclei, supersaturation and ongoing condensation/evaporation as parcels mix and move.
Conditions and scope
- State whether saturation is defined over liquid water or ice; saturation is not a universal water capacity of air.
- A condensation nucleus does not guarantee a cloud, and one dry lapse rate does not describe saturated ascent.
Sources · 2
References
Sources retain their recorded scope. A source link alone does not establish verification of every statement.
Evidence and review
Read humidity/dew-point definitions and nucleation/adiabatic cooling/mixing paragraphs; excluded universal nucleus-size and every-droplet/dust claims.
2026-10-10 · Independent AI editorial review: All36 Life-authored Earth compact statements/conditions/displayed equations and all81 origin semantic links read; all36 author exact-source matrix rows and exclusions assessed. All18 inherited Earth compact records read for combined inventory. Targeted independent actual primary sections listed below; not every source body or proof independently reread. AI editorial reference review, not human certification/field proficiency or whole-field completion. Receipt: earth-life-independent-content-review.1.
Entry details
Permanent link to this entry ↗- Record identity
- uni-earth-humidity-clouds
- Revision
- core.1
- Structured reference record
- University core expansion