klimatos
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1. In studies of the heat budget of the global free atmosphere, the concept of “latent heat” (now known as “enthalpy of condensation”) plays an important role[1].
2. Both observation and experiment confirm that when humid air condenses the temperature of the remaining air increases[2].
3. This temperature increase is believed to be caused by the release of energy by the water vapor molecules during the condensation process and its contemporaneous absorption by the remaining humid air[3].
4. Yet, to the best of my admittedly limited knowledge, no such release has ever been actually observed!
5. I suggest that the reason for this lack of observation is because no such energy as described in (3) exists. The very real temperature increase described in (2) is a simple statistical anomaly.
6. When condensation occurs, I maintain that the condensation process is selective. That is, the least energetic molecules are the most likely to be attracted to the hygroscopic condensation nuclei or to the hygroscopic proto-droplet. These least energetic molecules are, by the definition of temperature, the coolest molecules.
7. By selectively removing the coolest molecules, the mean temperature of the remaining molecules increases.
8. Let me offer an analogy. Imagine a large room containing a considerable number of people. Each individual has a certain amount of money on their person. The total amount of money in the room is analogous to the enthalpy content of a mass of humid air. The average amount per person is analogous to the temperature of our mass of humid air. We request that every individual with less than a certain amount of money step out of the room and into the lobby (analogous to condensation). After they leave, the total amount of money in the room is diminished, but the average has gone up.
9. So it is with condensation. You remove heat and the temperature goes up. A rather nice paradox. [1] Kiehl, J. T. and Trenberth, K. E., 1997: “Earth’s Annual Global Mean Energy Budget”, Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society, Vol. 78, No. 2, February 1997.
[2] R. R. Rogers and M. K. Yau, A Short Course in Cloud Physics, Butterworth & Heinemann, 1988.
[3] Ibid.
2. Both observation and experiment confirm that when humid air condenses the temperature of the remaining air increases[2].
3. This temperature increase is believed to be caused by the release of energy by the water vapor molecules during the condensation process and its contemporaneous absorption by the remaining humid air[3].
4. Yet, to the best of my admittedly limited knowledge, no such release has ever been actually observed!
5. I suggest that the reason for this lack of observation is because no such energy as described in (3) exists. The very real temperature increase described in (2) is a simple statistical anomaly.
6. When condensation occurs, I maintain that the condensation process is selective. That is, the least energetic molecules are the most likely to be attracted to the hygroscopic condensation nuclei or to the hygroscopic proto-droplet. These least energetic molecules are, by the definition of temperature, the coolest molecules.
7. By selectively removing the coolest molecules, the mean temperature of the remaining molecules increases.
8. Let me offer an analogy. Imagine a large room containing a considerable number of people. Each individual has a certain amount of money on their person. The total amount of money in the room is analogous to the enthalpy content of a mass of humid air. The average amount per person is analogous to the temperature of our mass of humid air. We request that every individual with less than a certain amount of money step out of the room and into the lobby (analogous to condensation). After they leave, the total amount of money in the room is diminished, but the average has gone up.
9. So it is with condensation. You remove heat and the temperature goes up. A rather nice paradox. [1] Kiehl, J. T. and Trenberth, K. E., 1997: “Earth’s Annual Global Mean Energy Budget”, Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society, Vol. 78, No. 2, February 1997.
[2] R. R. Rogers and M. K. Yau, A Short Course in Cloud Physics, Butterworth & Heinemann, 1988.
[3] Ibid.