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Deatiled measurements of the heat

| July 21, 2008 @ 3:52 pm | 4 Replies

It’s hot this afternoon, with 3 pm temps in the upper 90s over most of Alabama, and over 100 in some western counties.

We have some fairly detailed measurements of the heat at UAH that you may find interesting. First of all, we have thermometers that measure the temperature at heights of 6 ft. (standard) and 33 ft. every 5 seconds. Two things are clear…it’s hottest right near the ground, and as thermals go by, the temperature jumps around a lot. Here is a chart of temperatures since midnight, then a zoom in of temperatures from noon to 3 pm.

It’s 1-2 degrees cooler just 33 ft. off the ground than it is at 6 ft. Also, notice how the temperature does not rise steadily, but in jumps, with about 10-15 minutes between them. The sun heats the ground, and then the ground conducts that heat to the air near the ground. This hot air then rises in the atmosphere, setting up turbulence and the wavy temperature pattern.

Below is a time vs. height chart of the vertical motion in the atmosphere detected by the UAH MIPS wind profiler. Red colors indicate upward motion, blue indicates downward motion.

The atmosphere is turbulent up to about 5,000 feet, with heat being redistributed up to that height by the upward motions. This layer is known as the boundary layer.

For more information, check out the UAH MIPS page at https://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/mips/ then choose real-time data.

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