On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 12:57:11PM +0000, Robert J. Chassell wrote: > But wait, the endcaps don't need to be warm for humans. In fact, > we would like them to be quite cold at the center, around 40C to > 50C colder than the rim, in order to give the air a decent lapse > rate and keep the atmosphere stabile. .... > > Perhaps we do want the endcaps cold, but colder air higher up does not > keep the atmosphere stable.
It is true that if the atmospheric lapse rate is too great (roughly, higher than the adiabatic lapse rate) that the air will be unstable, as you say. But you will also have problems if the atmospheric lapse rate is too low, or zero. Stable was a poor word choice (I should have said well-mixed, perhaps), but if you want to have weather patterns similar to Earth, how do you think they could possibly arise if the atmosphere were isothermal? What you need is an atmospheric lapse rate slightly below the adiabatic lapse rate if you want to simulate Earth. > Inversions over cities are infamous for trapping pollutants in a > relatively small volume rather than diluting them through a large > volume. Good example. If you have an isothermal atmosphere in the habitat, how will you avoid this sort of problem? -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
