Smokescreen
Question: During a countryside fire on a still winter evening, the smoke
forms a horizontal layer after rising vertically to a height of a few metres.
Why?
Answer: Normally, the air gets colder the higher you go because of the fall
in air pressure. However, an inversion can occur in winter. Warmer air will lie
above colder air because the lower layer is cooled as the Earth’s surface loses
heat by radiating it into space. The two layers will be separated by a sharp
boundary.
Smoke rises from stacks because it is warmer than the surrounding air and
thus…
