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Temp and pressure at altitude equation


MegaMan64

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Hi, I am working on building a simple simulator in C# that find both the temperature and the pressure in pascals for a given air mass at different altitudes. I am also trying to find the density of the air mass as well.

The equation for the density I am using is

D = (P / R * T)

where

D = Density

P = Presser in Pascals

R = the gas constant i.e 287.05 (this is dry air)

T = Temperature

I need an equation that I can use to find the pressure and the temperature much like the one above simple and easy to understand.

Thank you for any help with this

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No this is not homework its for a skydiving simulation that I am playing around with;

I need more equation?

I think I can use the lapse rate of a dry air parcel to estimate the temperature. i.e. a drop of 6.5 C every 1000 meters

But the pressure is still not there yet.

I found an equation like this

p = 100 * ( 44331 * 514 - z / 11880 * 516 )^ (1 / 0.1902632)

which is I think atmospheric density and not pressure am I right?

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No this is not homework its for a skydiving simulation that I am playing around with;

I need more equation?

I think I can use the lapse rate of a dry air parcel to estimate the temperature. i.e. a drop of 6.5 C every 1000 meters

But the pressure is still not there yet.

I found an equation like this

p = 100 * ( 44331 * 514 - z / 11880 * 516 )^ (1 / 0.1902632)

which is I think atmospheric density and not pressure am I right?

That's an (estimate of) the moist adiabatic lapse rate, not the dry. A dry parcel's lapse rate is 9.76C/km.

The hypsometric equation is

fd291c9dac8360c7ea00f1afadc66154.png

So if you set your bottom pressure to the surface pressure you could calculate the height of another given pressure level, if you know the mean [virtual] temperature of the layer in question, which I'm not sure you do.

You could also assume constant density, an isothermal atmosphere, or a constant lapse rate atmosphere, but none of these is truly representative of the real atmosphere.

Your best bet is definitely to use the hypsometric equation, but you'll need the mean temperature of the layer in question.

That equation you gave is the "barometer equation" (according to my thermo book, anyway). I suppose that would work for you since it is just a simulation, but it assumes a surface temperature of 288.15K and a lapse rate of 0.0065K/m, which may or may not be representative of the real atmosphere. Should be fine for a simulation, though?

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