On Monday, 3 November 2014 15:33:24 UTC+2, Andy Blackburn wrote:
On Monday, November 3, 2014 3:15:06 AM UTC-8, pete purdie wrote:
...An important finding is that above about
one-third of the distance to the inversion, there is no significant
temperature difference between the thermal and surrounding air; near the
inversion the temperature is actually lower since the warmer air above the
inversion is being mixed down around the rising air. Humidity is a
significant indicator, H2O molecules being lighter than O2 or N2.

So thermals rise, not because of the sun heating the ground and making a bubble of warm air that breaks free, but because somehow a more humid bubble of air is created. What mechanism creates the bubble of humidity?

9B

No it's differences in temperature. Humidity is transferred up to inversion layer with thermals (closed system), and air above inversion is much drier.. It's a good point however that warmer air from inversion is sucked down, so temperature sensing might be useless there. I don't see it totally useless when searching for a thermal closer to ground. Interesting topic.