Convective overshoot

From Freepedia

Convective overshoot is the phenomenon of convection carrying material beyond an unstable region of convection, into a stratified, stable region. Overshoot is caused by the momentum of the convecting material, which carries the material beyond the convecting region.

One example is thermal columns extending above the top of the troposphere in Earth's atmosphere: warm air rising from the surface 'should' stop circulating at the tropopause, but its momentum carries it up into the stratosphere. This overshoot is responsible for most of the turbulence experienced in the cruise phase of commercial air flights.

Another example of convective overshoot is at the base of the convection zone in the solar interior. The heat of the Sun's thermonuclear fusion is carried outward by radiation in the deep interior radiative zone and by convective circulation in the outer convection zone, but cool sinking material from the surface penetrates farther into the radiative zone than naive theory would suggest. This affects the heat transfer rate and the temperature of the solar interior.



Views
Personal tools
Similar Links