If hot air rises, why do higher elevations have colder climates?

Answer 1

Higher elevations are colder as the atmosphere is heated from below .The solar radiation does not heat the atmosphere directly.It heats the earth's surface first and the earth's surface in turn heats the atmosphere by conduction.Because of this,amount of heat available becomes progressively less as you go up.So it becomes colder at higher altitudes.
The hot air near the surface is warmer than the sorroundings near the surface only and as it rises due to buoyancy,it becomes progressively colder and its temperature finally becomes almost equal to the sorroundings at a particular level.
So, the hot air will not make the atmosphere at higher levels hotter,instead the cold atmosphere at that level will make the hot air parcel colder.

Answer 2

Hot air doesn't rise just because it is hot. Less dense air rises. The atmosphere is densest close to the ground. There is more of it down there due to gravity. The troposphere is heated from below by the sun heating the ground which in turn heats the air above it which then heats the air above that.

Temperatures fall to the tropopause and then start rising through the stratosphere to the stratopause and then fall again in the mesosphere. The warmong in the mesosphere and the stratosphere is cused by the absorption of Ultra violet radiation and the creation and destruction of ozone.

When the air close to the ground is heated, it expands. If it becomes less dense than the air above it, it will rise. It does not rise because it is warmer than the air above it but because it is less dense. The cooler air above can be less dense than the warmer air below and thus there will be no vertical movement.

Answer 3

Also the atmosphere is thinner the higher you go, and the thinner the air is, the less heat it would be able to trap. That's why it is so bone-chillingly cold (like a couple hundred degrees below 0 F or more at night) on celestial bodies with no or very thin atmosphere, like the moon and Mars.

Answer 4

at different elevations through the atmosphere there are jet streams blowing different directions. some of these go through the Arctic and "cool" off the lower geographical areas. so if the wind is constantly moving it cools or heats the air helping to cause what we call weather.

Answer 5

Because the higher elevations are not by the equator and see less sun light. But mountains arnt always cold.

Answer 6

Warm air rises, but as it rises the pressure drops, the gas expands, and expanding gas gets cooler. This is called "adiabatic cooling".

Answer 7

its called the atmosphere.