Mark, I have always considered humid air as being more dense than dry air due to the weight of the water. I assumed that as a small volume of moist air rose inside dry air that the heat released by the water within would tend to make the column rise. Normally air being subject to expansion as the pressure is reduced with altitude would cool off in a well defined manner. It is the heat retained by the water that keeps this rising plume of air moving upward in a positive feedback mode.
Once I had a brilliant idea. I would pump cool mountain air from above through a large pipe to make ground level air conditioning. As I considered the process it occurred to me that the compression of the air as it came to ground level would raise the temperature until it was the same as the surrounding air. I believe that the temperature versus pressure with altitude defines a stable atmosphere as long as it has the correct curve shape. Nature loves to trump most of my ideas. Dave [snip\] Water vapor *below* cloud-condensation-level (CCL) is visually *invisible*, so it is reasonable to assume that it would be absorbing more of the sun’s energy and reflecting less, which would act as a latent heat reservoir. However, moist air is less dense than dry air, so the moist air rises and when reaching CCL, will condense out as clouds. (Reminds me of an interesting story of my former Research Advisor, Dr. Telford, in a top secret meeting with hi-level military brass and other scientists and engineers from a TS passive instrumentation project, trying to find a solution to very difficult problem which had eluded the gathered ‘experts’). -Mark
