3. Stability

Changing Stability » Heating and Cooling Surface Cooling and Fog Formation

Conceptual animation showing how surface cooling leads to the creation of a fog layer

If sufficient surface cooling takes place, saturation results, leading to fog or stratus formation. However, unlike the case of condensation in cumulus clouds, the latent heat released in fog or stratus is usually too small to greatly increase the mixing depth. On the other hand, the formation of fog or stratus greatly reduces or stops the further radiative cooling of the ground. However, radiative cooling at the top of the fog or stratus tends to maintain the inversion near the top of fog or cloud.

A detailed explanation of fog processes is beyond the scope of this skew-T module. More details regarding fog formation and sounding analyses may be found in the following COMET modules:

Radiation Fog
Forecasting Radiation Fog
Dynamically Forced Fog