Excelet

Exploring Relative Humidity

Let's examine water vapor in the atmosphere
and how it varies with temperature
dry-bulb wet-bulb
Click tabs to navigate!!!
DT
Relative Humidity Data for Washington, DC National Airport
FALSE
How does relative humidity,%RH, vary during the day? Why?
Sinex 2010
to get data: http://www.accuweather.com/forecast-past24-us.asp?partner=accuweather&zipcode=20001&metric=1
20
25
30
35
0
15
30
45
60
75
90
1:00
PM
2:00
PM
3:00
PM
4:00
PM
5:00
PM
6:00
PM
7:00
PM
8:00
PM
9:00
PM
10:00
PM
11:00
PM
12:00
AM
1:00
AM
2:00
AM
3:00
AM
4:00
AM
5:00
AM
6:00
AM
7:00
AM
8:00
AM
9:00
AM
10:00
AM
11:00
AM
12:00
PM
T,
o
C
%RH
Time
add temperature data to graph
midnight
7/27 - afternoon 7/28 - noon
27-28 July 2009
Time Temp.
o
C %RH
1:00 PM 31 54 -50
2:00 PM 32 52 -50
3:00 PM 32 49 -50
4:00 PM 33 44 -50
5:00 PM 32 48 -50
6:00 PM 32 52 -50
7:00 PM 31 56 -50
8:00 PM 29 62 -50
9:00 PM 29 66 -50
10:00 PM 28 71 -50
11:00 PM 27 73 -50
12:00 AM 27 73 -50
1:00 AM 26 76 -50
2:00 AM 26 78 -50
3:00 AM 26 75 -50
4:00 AM 26 73 -50
5:00 AM 25 78 -50
6:00 AM 24 84 -50
7:00 AM 24 81 -50
8:00 AM 25 81 -50
9:00 AM 26 78 -50
10:00 AM 26 75 -50
11:00 AM 26 73 -50
12:00 PM 27 66 -50
Determining Relative Humidity with a Psychrometer
Dry-bulb temperature = 25
o
C atmospheric pressure = 1013 mb 760 torr
Wet-bulb temperature = 20
o
C difference in temperature = 5.0
o
C Sea Level Pressure
Why is the temperature of the wet-bulb thermometer lower?
Calculated quantities: amount of water vapor maximum water vapor that
found in air can exist in air
actual vapor pressure = 19.9 mb saturated vapor pressure = 31.7 mb
15.0 torr 23.8 torr
actual vapor density = 14.6 g/m
3
saturated vapor density = 23.1 g/m
3
Relative Humidity = 63.0 %
Dew Point Temperature = 17.5
o
C
Formulas for calculated quantities from: click here
http://www.4wx.com/wxcalc/formulas/rhTdFromWetBulb.php
Sinex 2010
Saturated Vapor Density of Water
Mathematical Model for Saturated Vapor Density (VD)
saturated vapor density, g/m
3
as a function of temperature (T) over the range of 0-40
o
C FALSE
T,
o
C measured calculated error
0 4.85 -50
5 6.80 -50
10 9.40 -50 This is the
11 10.01 -50 maximim
12 10.66 -50 amount of
13 11.35 -50 water vapor
14 12.07 -50 that can exist
15 12.83 -50 in air at a
20 17.30 -50 specific
25 23.00 -50 temperature.
30 30.40 -50
37 44.00 -50
40 51.10 -50
Vapor density is the mass of water vapor in grams found
in one cubic meter of air. Similar to vapor pressure curve.
VD = 0.00036T
3
+ 0.00543T
2
+ 0.37067T + 4.81865
R
2
= 1.00
data from: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/Kinetic/watvap.html#c1 Sinex 2010
click here
The model results here are slightly different.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
VD
g/m
3
Temperature,
o
C
fit model
Relative Humidity How does the temperature change influence the relative humidity?
temperature
saturated actual vapor density of air = 14.5 g/m
3
17
vapor density, g/m
3
(measured
) 170 - - - - -
T,
o
C calculated relative humidity
0 4.82 300.9 Dew Point
5 6.85 211.6 0 100 TRUE Temperature
10 9.43 153.8 40 100
11 10.03 144.5 (Find this
12 10.67 135.9 point on the
13 11.35 127.8 graph for
14 12.06 120.2 your
15 12.82 113.1 conditions.)
20 17.28 83.9
25 23.10 62.8
30 30.55 47.5
37 44.20 32.8
40 51.37 28.2
Saturated vapor
T %RH density removed How does dew form?
17 100.29 14.46 0.04 g
o
C g/m
3
water condenses
based on: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/HBASE/Kinetic/relhum.html#c3 Sinex 2010
click here
saturation
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
r
e
l
a
t
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v
e

h
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m
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%

temperature,
o
C
add saturation line
Temperature
point on the
add saturation line