Air parcel

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An air parcel is a meteorologically defined chunk of air in the atmosphere. How large or small this chunk is depends on scale you are looking at. Meteorologists study the movements and changes in air parcels over time as one tool in weather forecasting.

Conceptually, one could imagine that the air inside a hot air balloon is an air parcel. An Air Parcel has certain properties; heat and moisture being two important ones. With no outside influence, no change to the parcel. When heat is added to a parcel, the parcel becomes warmer than the surrounding environment/atmosphere/air, the parcel will rise. Likewise, when it becomes cooler than the surrounding environment, it will sink.

A meteorologist can look at a Skew-T chart and determine how a parcel of air will act, which in turn can be used to forecast the weather.


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