 Humidity ratio

The humidity ratio $w$ is the mass of water vapor divided by the mass of dry air in a sample:It is commonly expressed as kilograms of water vapor per kilogram of dry air, or grams per kilogram. The denominator excludes the water vapor itself; the related specific humidity is a mass fraction of the entire moist sample.^[ref]

Using the ideal gas law for both components giveswhere $M_v,M_d$ are molar masses, $p_v$ is the water-vapor partial pressure, and $p$ is total pressure. At $p=101.325\mathrm{kPa}$ and $p_v=1.6\mathrm{kPa}$, this yields $w\approx 0.00998$, or about $9.98g/kg$ of dry air.^[ref]

Unlike relative humidity, the humidity ratio does not compare vapor pressure with saturation vapor pressure. Warming air without adding or removing water vapor can change its relative humidity while leaving $w$ unchanged. This distinction matters when comparing incoming and outgoing air in measurements of evaporation or biological heat loss.