“Stability or instability can be determined by comparing surface temperature with the temperature in the air. The greater the temperature difference, the more unstable the air and the greater the turbulence.”
Scent is detected when airborne molecules stimulate olfactory receptor cells. If a substance is unstable, it will give off molecules, or odorants. Stable materials like glass don’t have a smell because they don’t give off molecules. Temperature and humidity affect scent because they increase molecular instability. A substance’s solubility affects its scent. Substances that dissolve in water or fatty tissues usually give off an intense odor. Scent is dispersed in the same manner as smoke and other aerosols emanating from a continuous source. Smoke is defined as a colloid. Colloids are mixtures whose particles are larger than the size of a molecule but smaller than particles that can be seen with the naked eye. It is a suspension of solid and or liquid particles in the air. The particles in smoke are so fine they behave like gases. The force due to gravity is not large enough to allow the particles to settle and their surface charge causes them to repel one another so they cannot coagulate into larger particles. In addition, collisions with high-speed molecules of atmospheric gases keep them active. Thus, we know that anything that produces a scent (odor) must emit either vapors or particles or both, as well as that each of these have energy that causes them to move. This being so, it also proves that these particles increase or decrease their speed and interaction with each other based on temperature. With an increase in temperature, the particles tend to collide and move faster until some of the particles escape into the atmosphere. The opposite happens when they are exposed to cold.
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Convection is the cause of the movement of air by way of heat transfer. In convection, the warmer particles transfer their energy to the cooler particles as they move in a circular pattern called a “convection current.” As one area warms, its air rises which causes the cooler air to move in where the warm air had been; then as the warm air cools, it moves out and away from the warm updraft of air. This is the reason for continual winds along the coast.
Climatic or convectional turbulence is caused by atmospheric instability which is manipulated by major air masses, solar radiation, and resulting air temperature variance. Stability or instability can be determined by comparing surface temperature with the temperature in the air. The greater the temperature difference, the more unstable the air and the greater the turbulence.