What causes the temperature to decrease with height in the troposphere?
1 Answer
Nov 30, 2015
Pressure decrease.
Explanation:
As one climbs in the atmosphere the atmospheric pressure decreases. This is due to there being less atmosphere above you and therefore less mass for gravity to work on. If you are 1000m above the surface of the Earth you would have 1000m less atmosphere on you.
According to Gay-Lussac's law for gases, pressure and temperature are directly proportional. Therefore as the pressure decreases so does the temperature.
