temperature inversion, condition in which the temperature of the atmosphere increases with altitude in contrast to the normal decrease with altitude. When temperature inversion occurs, cold air underlies warmer air at higher altitudes. Temperature inversion may occur during the passage of a cold front or result from the invasion of sea air by a cooler onshore breeze. Overnight radiative cooling of surface air often results in a nocturnal temperature inversion that is dissipated after sunrise by the warming of air near the ground. A more long-lived temperature inversion accompanies the dynamics of the large high-pressure systems depicted on weather maps. Descending currents of air near the center of the high-pressure system produce a warming (by adiabatic compression), causing air at middle altitudes to become warmer than the surface air. Rising currents of cool air lose their buoyancy and are thereby inhibited from rising further when they reach the warmer, less dense air in the upper layers of a temperature inversion. During a temperature inversion, air pollution released into the atmosphere's lowest layer is trapped there and can be removed only by strong horizontal winds. Because high-pressure systems often combine temperature inversion conditions and low wind speeds, their long residency over an industrial area usually results in episodes of severe smog.

temperature inversion

In meteorology, an increase of air temperature with altitude. Such an increase is a reversal of the normal temperature condition of the troposphere, where temperature usually decreases with altitude. Inversions play an important role in determining cloud forms, precipitation, and visibility. An inversion acts as a lid, preventing the upward movement of the air below it. Where a pronounced inversion is present at a low level, convective clouds cannot grow high enough to produce showers and, at the same time, visibility may be greatly reduced by trapped pollutants (see smog). Because the air near the base of the inversion is cool, fog is frequently present there.

temperature inversion [′tem·prə·chər in‚vər·zhən]

(meteorology)

A layer in the atmosphere in which temperature increases with altitude; the principal characteristic of an inversion layer is its marked static stability, so that very little turbulent exchange can occur within it; strong wind shears often occur across inversion layers, and abrupt changes in concentrations of atmospheric particulates and atmospheric water vapor may be encountered on ascending through the inversion layer. Also known as thermal inversion.

(oceanography)

A layer of a large body of water in which temperature increases with depth.