Strahler Companion Ch. This chapter examines air temperature, its measurement and the factors that cause it to vary through time and space. When net radiation is positive, the surface gains heat and temperature rises. When net radiation is negative, the surface loses heat and temperature falls.
Air temperature measured above urban surfaces is usually higher than that over rural surfaces .
The outer boundary of the troposphere is the tropopause. In the stratosphere , the absorption of ultraviolet radiation causes the temperature to increase with altitude. In a temperature inversion , the normal situation of air cooling with altitude is reversed and air warms with altitude. Yearly temperature range is greater in high latitude and continental locations and less at equatorial and coastal locations. The world patterns of isotherms are largely explained by latitude, coastal-interior contrasts and elevation.