Why does rising air cool, while sinking air warms?

Answer 1

Hot air rises, so since it's cold up there, the air cools.

Cold air sinks, so since it's usually warmer at the surface, the air warms.

Answer 2

I think your main question is WHY does it get cooler or get warmer. First you must understand that warm air rises and cool air sinks in the first place. That is why when you heat a house it goes up to the roof etc. But when this warm air is rising, it goes higher in the sky, our tempertures drop as we go higher and higher in the sky.If you shoot a rocket into space it is below zero temps. Look at it this way, if you are warm and then you slowly start to walk into a freezer you start to cool down. The earth is much warmer in temperture due to soil, rock etc that has been absorbing the sun all day. When that cold air starts to fall down closer to the earth it will get warmer. Same as if you are cold then you walk closer to a heater, what happens? you get warmer.
Now here is a very detailed explaination which can be more than you are asking for which explains what happens once the temperture change happens.
You often hear weather forecasters talk about an unstable atmosphere and how it helps spawn showers and thunderstorms. Stability is one of the main factors that determine where showers and thunderstorms will develop and how strong they will become. Due to the principle of density, a parcel of air will rise if it is heated and becomes warmer than the surrounding environment. Unsaturated air cools at a rate of 5.5 F per 1000 feet of altitude. In an unstable atmosphere, the environment cools quicker than the parcel, allowing the parcel to continue to rise. On the other hand, a stable atmosphere cools slower with height than the parcel, causing the parcel to become colder than the surrounding air and sink.

Moisture can make what normally would be a stable atmosphere, unstable because of condensation. A saturated air parcel cools at a rate of only 3.3 F per 1000 feet of altitude. This is much slower than the unsaturated air parcel, and as a result, the rising, saturated parcel remains warmer than if condensation were not taking place. The difference in cooling rates is due to latent heat released by the condensing water.

Showers and thunderstorms develop in areas of instability where air parcels are allowed to rise uninhibited through the atmosphere. Any weather process that causes colder conditions aloft relative to warmer conditions at the surface will lead to an unstable atmosphere. Some of these weather processes include:

Heating of the surface. Sunshine or low level warm air advection heats the surface and the air near it, making it relatively warmer than aloft.
Cold advection aloft. Cold air moves into the higher altitudes and causes temperatures to cool faster than at the surface.
Mixing of the air. Rising air lowers the temperatures toward the top of the layer while sinking air warms temperatures toward the bottom.
Large scale rising of the air. A layer of air expands and becomes thicker as it rises. The upper part of the layer rises more than the bottom and cools more as a result. This creates colder temperatures aloft relative to the surface.

Answer 3

This can best be explained with the Ideal Gas Law PV=nRT. Let s look first at why a sinking parcel of air warms. As a parcel of air sinks, its pressure increases. Pressure and temperature are directly correlated, so as the parcel s pressure increase so does the temperature. This is called adiabatic warming. An example would be a Chinook wind.

On the opposite hand, as a parcel of air rises, the surrounding air pressure decreases. As air pressure decreases, the parcel cools. This is called adiabatic cooling. An example of this is a lenticular cloud, very stable and beautiful, most commonly viewed over hilly/mountainous terrain.

Answer 4

because ones the air get down it get warmer do to the fat that is closer to the thing that is making it hot ... as soon as is hot it becomes liter and goes up do to the fat that the warm air expanse .. ones the hot air get away from the hot object it cold downs it contracts becoming heavier and sinks

sorry my English isn't all that good :(

Answer 5

becuase warm air rises and cold air sinks. so if the air goes up it gets heated up and when the air goes down it gets cooled down.

Answer 6

because hot air rises, and its trying to even out, and cold air sinks, and its trying to even out.

Answer 7

The air temp at higher altitudes is lower at higher altitudes due to decreasing pressure.

Answer 8

it sounds as though you have a VERY good legal case and basis for suing your school teachers for negligence

Answer 9

I thought it was the other way around...