Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-of-atmospheres-and-oceans-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/3/d/solution

The dew-point depression is , so
Keeping , and gives approximately , consistent with the rounded estimate.
The real cloud base can differ because entrainment changes the parcel's atmospheric mixing ratio and temperature, surface humidity varies, and the environmental pressure profile need not match the assumed parcel profile. Finite cloud-droplet activation requires some atmospheric supersaturation, so the first visible cloud droplets need not occur exactly at the thermodynamic lifting condensation level. A parcel must also actually be lifted that far; environmental static stability can prevent this. The constant-latent heat and first-order Taylor expansion approximations produce smaller numerical differences.

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