Dry adiabatic motion and potential temperature
For an ideal dry gas with constant heat capacities, potential temperature θ=T(p₀/p)^(Rd/cp) is conserved in reversible adiabatic parcel motion.
Key knowledge
For an ideal dry gas with constant heat capacities, potential temperature θ=T(p₀/p)^(Rd/cp) is conserved in reversible adiabatic parcel motion. Comparing parcel and environmental potential temperature helps assess dry static stability. Temperature itself changes during expansion or compression even without heat exchange.
Values and equations
θ = T(p₀/p)^(Rd/cp)
- θ,T
- potential and actual absolute temperature K
- p₀,p
- reference and parcel pressure Pa
- Rd
- dry-gas mass-specific gas constant J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹
- cp
- mass-specific constant-pressure heat capacity J kg⁻¹ K⁻¹
Conditions and scope
- Specify reference pressure p₀; Rd and cp are mass-specific gas constant and heat capacity.
- Moist phase change, mixing or irreversible heating requires additional thermodynamic accounting.
Sources · 2
References
Sources retain their recorded scope. A source link alone does not establish verification of every statement.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology2 sources
Evidence and review
Read explicit potential-temperature/entropy relation and adiabatic-conservation/stability explanation; PDF symbol-encoding problem checked against the clear problem-set equation.
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-potential-temperature
- Revision
- core.1
- Structured reference record
- University core expansion