Rain calms the atmosphere

2012/02/29 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

“After the storm calms,” says the saying, and some American physicists have calculated to what extent the rain calms the atmosphere, that is, how much the energy takes away. According to the results published in Science, this factor can influence more than expected atmospheric circulation.

The Sun brings heat energy into the air of the earth's surface. And by the tendency of this air to pass heat to the upper cold air, part of that heat is transformed into kinetic energy (movement). This generates the winds and the air circulation itself. And finally, that kinetic energy that accumulates in the atmosphere dissipates mostly through turbulence, or at least that was thought so far.

In fact, during rain, atmospheric energy is also consumed as a friction force between raindrops and air. From the data taken by the satellite to measure the tropical rain of NASA, they have calculated that the energy dissipated as force of friction of raindrops is equal to that spent in turbulence, so it is a factor to consider in the energy balance of the atmosphere.