Available potential energy in the atmosphere

Summary

The study of available potential energy is approached in a new way. According to the second law of thermodynamics, we may find, from among the states which can be attained through all the actual processes in an isolated atmosphere, the limit state, referred to as the lowest state, that is achieved by means of reversible processes and possesses the least total potential energy. Thus, the maximum available potential energy can be estimated by taking the lowest state as the reference state. The variations of the lowest state and maximum available potential energy with baroclinity and mean static stability are illustrated graphically as some examples in the text. This study gives a more fundamental understanding for the kinetic energy generation in the baroclinic atmosphere. Also, the extreme kinetic generation in irreversible processes is investigated. The obtained results may be adopted for the energetics of explosive systems in the atmosphere.