Meteorology Tutorial: Diurnal Phases

--Water has a higher specific heat capacity than land and air. In other words, it takes more heat to raise the temperature of water by one degree. Thus, water takes more time to warm and to cool.

--Since air has a lower specific heat capacity, it has a higher temperature than water during daytime. This creates a mesoscale capping inversion--meaning, that the temperature rises from lower levels to higher levels (relatively...the inversion stops at about 1000ft).When that happens, it is harder for air to rise, because the warmer air is on top of the cooler air near the water surface. Warm air needs to below cooler air for it to be sufficiently unstable for formidable convective storm formation; why?--because warm air is less dense and more buoyant. An air balloon will rise much faster when it is in a tank of water than if it was outside, because of the higher pressure of water and the lower of air. Likewise when warmer air is above cooler air below it, it is harder for it to rise. This is why convection often wanes with weak tropical cyclones during diurnal minimum.

--During night time, the temperature of the air is cooler than the water surface. As a result, the air parcels that are close and is in contact with the water warms by conduction. Thus, the air directly at sea level is less dense than the air above it. You know what this means right? ;). It means that it will be more convenient for the air to rise know, since denser air directly above it.

*Good analogies for buoyancy

Inflated balloon under water--rises due to the much higher ambient pressure. A submarine uses a similar technique to surface. (less info)