20(b) What do you understand by the phenomenon of temperature inversion in meteorology? How does it affect the weather and the habitants of the place?

20(b) What do you understand by the phenomenon of temperature inversion in meteorology? How does it affect the weather and the habitants of the place?

           Temperature inversion is said to occur when temperature increases with increase in altitude. Generally, increase in altitude should result in decrease of temperature at the environmental lapse rate. This is because the atmosphere is heated indirectly by the long wave radiations from the earth crust and not by the incoming short wave radiations from sun.

    Temperature inversion occurs in certain special cases like,

1. Frontal Temperature inversion: When warm and cold fronts meet, the warm front rises above and the cold front being heavier sinks. It occurs often in the temperate zone and causes anticyclonic conditions  which result in precipitation.
2. Temperature inversion accross the tropopause(between troposphere and stratosphere)  
3. At valleys where the air in the valley gets heated and rises resulting in colder air from the slopes to sink to the bottom.
4. In the Ionosphere due to ionization.

It affects the whether and habitants due to change in temperature, moisture  and wind patterns.

The maxim ‘Altitude mimics Latitude’ and the properties associated with it are clearly identifiable in the mountains. The snow atop Mt.Kilimanjaro, Mt.Cayambe, Mt.Cotachachi, Mt.Kenya despite their presence despite its presence in the equatorial  region exemplify this. Flaura and fauna similar to temperate regions can be found along these slopes.