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To understand lapse rates one must know the basic laws of gases and how they function in the atmosphere: When in lower pressure gasses expand and cool down. When in higher pressure gases compress and warm up. It is also important to understand the temperature variation with altitude plays an important role regarding the expansion or compression of air parcels. There are three types of lapse rates: Environmental Lapse Rate (ELR), Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DALR) and Wet or Saturated Adiabatic Lapse Rate (SALR).

The Environmental Lapse Rate describes how temperature decreases with altitude in the troposphere. These changes occur vertically, within a day and from day to day. The Environmental Lapse Rate in the troposphere is 6.5 degrees Celsius in every 1000 meters. The cooling down process is adiabatic which means the higher temperature is contained in the air parcel. An air parcel has relative uniform temperature and humidity. It’s important to remember that an air parcel continues to rise if it’s warmer than the air surrounding it, like the air in a weather balloon. As an air parcel continues to reach lower temperatures, it will start to lose altitude and settle down.

The Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DALR) measures how a dry or unsaturated parcel of air loses heat as it rises. Unsaturated air is defined as air that has anything less than 100 percent relative humidity. The Dry Adiabatic Lapse rate loses heat at 3 degree Celsius per 1000 feet. As a dry parcel of air cools it starts to condense, which will eventually create clouds. This is where the Wet Adiabatic Lapse rate comes into play.

The Dew Point occurs when an air parcel reaches a temperature where there is 100 percent relative humidity. What is relative humidity? It ...

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... six cities scatterplot. The “r” value for three cities was 0.1272 and the “r” value for six cities was 0.1219. However, this student believes that more cites is better as it depicts a clearer picture of Environmental Lapse Rates.

In conclusion, adding more cities did not necessarily mean increasing the “r” value closer to 1. Moreover, Seasons affect data correlation as temperatures in summer are closer to each other in all elevations which yields to decreased correlation. In winter the discrepancy in temperatures is wider which yields to a positive correlation. Although all figures stayed on the positive of the “r” range value, the discrepancy varied greatly. However, it is confirmed in the scatterplots that temperatures does change with altitude. Further exercises will be done in the future using different towns to keep exploring lapse rates by this student.