Layer of dense, cool air trapped under a layer of less dense, warm air. This prevents upward-flowing air currents from developing. In a prolonged inversion, air pollution in the trapped layer may build up to harmful levels. See radiation temperature inversion, subsidence temperature inversion.

weather condition that as often associated with serious smog. In a temperature inversion, warm air doesn't rise because it is trapped near the ground by a layer of heavy colder air above it. Pollutants in the warm air especially smog and smog-forming chemicals, including volatile organic compounds, are trapped close to the ground. As people continue driving, and sources other than motor vehicles continue to release smog-forming pollutants into the air, the smog level keeps getting worse.

The condition in which warm air is formed above a layer of cool air that is near the earth’s surface.

The weather phenomenon in which a layer of warm air overlies cooler air near the ground and prevents the rising and dispersion of air pollutants.

An increase in temperature with height above the Earth's surface, a reversal of the normal pattern.

A meteorological condition in which in very still, stable air, cooler, denser air settles close to the ground and warmer air forms a blanket above it, trapping air pollutants, such as smoke and soot. In such an inversion, temperature increases with height.

a condition in which the temperature decreases, then increases with altitude, rather than decreasing with altitude, causing sound waves to be refracted back to the earth

a meteorological phenomenon where air temperature increases with height

When cold air sinks to the bottom of a valley and becomes trapped beneath a layer of warmer air, usually in the absence of a strong breeze.

A state in which cooler, denser air underlies warmer, lighter air and is thus prevented by gravity from vertical mixing and dispersion. Such a condition acts to trap air pollutants near the grounds.

A layer of warm air in the atmosphere that prevents the rise of cooling air and traps pollutants beneath it.

An increase of air temperature with height so that warmer air overlies colder air.

the air at Earth's surface is colder than the air above it so convection does not occur; a layer of cold is trapped beneath a layer of warm air

The state of the atmosphere resulting when a warm layer of air overrides a cooler layer of air, the opposite of the normal condition in which the temperature decreases with altitude.

One of the weather conditions that are often associated with serious smog episodes in some portions of the country. During a temperature inversion, air doesn't rise because it is trapped near the ground by a layer of warmer air above it. Pollutants, espeically smog and smog-forming chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) cannot escape.

a layer in which air temperature increases with height

Air temperature normally lowers with increasing height. When the temperature of the air increases with height, an inversion is present.

Vertical temperature distribution such that temperature increases with height.

is a temperature condition in which a mass of cold air is trapped beneath a mass of warm air

When warmer air lies above cooler air near the earth's surface.

A layer in which temperature increases with altitude.

An increase in air temperature with height.

Situation where a layer of warmer air exists above the Earth's surface in a normal atmosphere where air temperature decreases with altitude. In the warmer layer of air, temperature increases with altitude.

One of the weather conditions that are often associated with serious smog episodes in some portions of the country. In a temperature inversion, air does not rise because it is trapped near the ground by a layer of warmer air above it. Pollutants, especially smog and smog-forming chemicals, including volatile organic compounds, are trapped close to the ground. As people continue driving, and sources other than motor vehicles continue to release smog-forming pollutants into the air, the smog level keeps getting worse.

An extremely stable air layer in which temperature increases with altitude, the inverse of the usual temperature profile in the troposphere.

In the troposphere, temperatures usually decrease the higher you go. With an inversion, the temperature increases with altitude.