When temperature increases with altitude, this phenomenon is referred to as what?

The phenomenon of temperature increasing with altitude is known as an inversion. In a typical atmosphere, temperature decreases with increasing altitude due to the cooling effect of elevation. However, during an inversion, a layer of warmer air traps cooler air beneath it, preventing it from rising. This can lead to various weather effects, such as smog formation and temperature stratification, which can impact aerial applications of pesticides by affecting drift and dispersion patterns.

Understanding inversions is crucial for aerial applicators, as they need to be aware of atmospheric conditions when planning pesticide applications. An inversion can lead to stable air conditions where pollutants and pesticides may linger longer in the lower atmosphere, which could pose risks to health and the environment.

The other options refer to different atmospheric conditions: the superdiabatic lapse rate pertains to a scenario where air temperature decreases more rapidly than the normal rate, the wet adiabatic lapse rate describes the temperature change of a rising air mass that contains moisture, and isotherms are lines on a weather map connecting points of equal temperature. While these concepts are important in meteorology, they do not define the specific scenario of increasing temperature with altitude as an inversion does.