Fundamentals on Thermodynamic Processes behind Clouds’ and Rainfalls’ Formation

Mbane Biouele César^*

Laboratory of Earth’s Atmosphere Physics, Department of Physics, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroun.

DOI: 10.4236/acs.2015.53019                

Abstract

The prevailing idea so far about why the rainfall occurs was that after agglutination of water droplets with condensation nuclei, the size of the particle formed by the condensation nuclei connected with droplets of water increased considerably and caused its fall. This idea has led to numerous scientific publications in which empirical distribution functions of clouds’ water droplets sizes were proposed. Estimates values provided by these empirical distribution functions, in most cases, were validated by comparison with UHF Radar measurements. The condensation nuclei concept has not been sufficiently exploited and this has led meteorologists to error, in their attempt to describe the clouds, thinking that clouds were formed by liquid water droplets. Indeed, MBANE BIOUELE paradox (2005) confirms this embarrassing situation. In fact, when applying Archimedes theorem to a liquid water droplet suspended in the atmosphere, we obtain a meaningless inequality  which makes believe that the densities of pure water in liquid and solid phases are much lower than that of the atmosphere considered at the sea level. This meaningless inequality is easy to contradict: of course, if you empty a bottle of pure liquid water in the ocean (where z is equal to 0), this water will not remain suspended in the air, i.e., application of Archimedes’ theorem allows realizing that there is no liquid (or solid) water droplet, suspended in the clouds. Indeed, all liquid (or solid) water droplets which are formed in clouds, fall under the effect of gravity and produce rains. This means that our current description of the clouds is totally wrong. In this study, we describe the clouds as a gas composed of dry air and saturated water vapor whose optical properties depend on temperature, i.e., when the temperature of a cloud decreases, the color of this gaseous system tends towards white.

Keywords

Condensation nuclei, Clouds’ formation Thermodynamic Processes, MBANE BIOUELE Paradox, Clouds Cannot Be Composed of Suspended Liquid (or Solid) Water Droplets

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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