The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. How does temperature change with altitude in the troposphere?
1 Answer
As altitude increases temperature decreases.
Explanation:
Gay Lussac's Law shows that temperature and pressure are proportional. Essentially if pressure goes up temperature goes up, and visa verse.
Atmosphere pressure is the pressure exerted by the mass of the atmosphere over a given area. Picture the column of air over top of the given location, all the way up to the top of the atmosphere and imagine the weight of that air on the ground. That is the air pressure.
So if you are in the column of air and you move upward in it there is less air above you. For example, if you were on the roof of a 50 story building (say 500 ft tall) the air mass from the ground to the top of the building is no longer on top of you.
So since as you go up in the atmosphere we know that pressure decreases, and we know from Gay Lussac's law that as pressure goes down so does temperature, therefore as your altitude increases the temperature drops. This is in reference to the troposphere, other layers of the atmosphere have different processes at work.
