Abstract
The dry adiabatic lapse rate of atmosphere should be referred to
‘vertical temperature lapse rate of dry air whose vertical motion
characteristics is neutral’. There are two errors in the derivation of
dry adiabatic lapse rate(γd) in existing textbooks: 1. The work done by
gravity field is not considered; 2. Only the volume work exchange
between air parcel and surrounding atmosphere is considered, and the
heat exchange between them is arbitrarily ignored. When the size of air
parcel is reduced from meters to nearly nanometers, the specific surface
area will increase dramatically, and the corresponding heat transfer
rate will also increase dramatically, so it is inappropriate to ignore
all the heat exchange of any size air parcel in vertical motion. It is
the overall microstructural characteristics of atmosphere that determine
the stability of atmosphere, not the motion characteristics of an air
parcel with a specific size in a specific movement. Hypothetical
simulation from the perspective of random micro-perturbations of
atmosphere is the most concise and powerful way to derive γd. Combined
with the process of proving the stability of atmospheres with different
vertical temperature distributions, the true meaning of γd and the
method of derivation can be more fully explained.