A chinook wind is taking place on the leeward side of a mountain in New Mexico.

Question

A chinook wind is taking place on the leeward side of a mountain in New Mexico. The air within this hot, dry wind system has the following parameters: p = 1000 mb, T = 38 °C, rv = 4 g kg-1. (a) Could this air be the same as that at the 1000 mb level on the windward side of the mountains, where the air has the following parameters: T = 21.5 °C, rv = 10 g kg-1? (b) Could it be the same as that at the 800 mb levels where T = 5 °C and rv = 5 g kg-1? State reasons for your answers, and also use a skew-T diagram to support your answers. [Hint: Consider what variables are conserved for this process.]

Explanation / Answer

For this problem, we are required to find e using the skew-T diagram. If the values for e are equal then the air is likely the same since e is conserved.
This can be done by following way:
To find e we find the LCL. Go up to the moist adiabat until it's parallel with the dry adiabat. And then go down the dry adiabat that matches the moist adiabat until we reach the pressure of 1,000millibar. The finding of our given problem is summarized below.
a) e = 324 K for both, hence the air is the same.
b) e = 331 K, hence the values are not the same so they are different air samples.

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