instability

views updated Jun 27 2018

instability The atmospheric condition in which displaced air tends to maintain its movement away from its original level. This occurs, for example, when rising air cools at the moist-adiabatic lapse rate while a greater environmental lapse rate allows the air parcel to remain warmer than surrounding air (or even increases the temperature difference) so that continual buoyancy prevails. See also conditional instability; potential instability; and stability.

instability

views updated May 08 2018

instability Atmospheric condition in which displaced air tends to maintain its movement away from its original level. This occurs, for example, when rising air cools at the moist-adiabatic lapse rate while a greater environmental lapse rate allows the air parcel to remain warmer than surrounding air (or even increases the temperature difference) so that continual buoyancy prevails. See also CONDITIONAL INSTABILITY; POTENTIAL INSTABILITY; and STABILITY.

instability

views updated May 17 2018

in·sta·bil·i·ty / ˌinstəˈbilitē/ • n. (pl. -ties) lack of stability; the state of being unstable: political and economic instability. ∎  tendency to unpredictable behavior or erratic changes of mood: she showed increasing signs of mental instability.

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