Science Common Sense

1823 - Why does the vertical temperature difference of the atmosphere cause instability and trigger vertical motion?

Imagine you have air in a jar with a layer of cold air at the bottom and a layer of warm air at the top. If you heat the bottom of the jar, the cold air gets warmer and starts rising because it becomes lighter than the air around it.

In the atmosphere, when the air near the ground is warmer than the air above it (this is called an 'unstable' atmosphere), it works the same way as the jar. The warm air rises, creating an upward motion or 'instability'. This upward motion creates space near the ground that gets filled with more air, which then gets warmed up and rises again, creating a continuous cycle of air rising and new air coming in to replace it.

So, when the air near the ground is warmer than the air above, it causes instability and triggers vertical motion, like rising air.