Measure of instability in the air as a buoyancy force
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A skew-T plot showing a morning sounding with a large hydrolapse followed by an afternoon sounding showing the cooling (red curve moving to the left) which occurred in the mid-levels resulting in an unstable atmosphere as surface parcels have now become negatively buoyant. The red line is temperature, the green line is the dew point, and the black line is the air parcel lifted.
In meteorology, convective available potential energy (commonly abbreviated as CAPE),[1] is the integrated amount of work that the upward (positive) buoyancy force would perform on a given mass of air (called an air parcel) if it rose vertically through the entire atmosphere. Positive CAPE will cause the air parcel to rise, while negative CAPE will cause the air parcel to sink.
Nonzero CAPE is an indicator of atmospheric instability in any given atmospheric sounding, a necessary condition for the development of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds with attendant severe weather hazards.
^M. W. Moncrieff, M.J. Miller (1976). "The dynamics and simulation of tropical cumulonimbus and squall lines". Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 120 (432): 373–94. Bibcode:1976QJRMS.102..373M. doi:10.1002/qj.49710243208.
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{C_{k}}{C_{d}}}(CAPE_{s}^{*}-CAPE_{b})|_{m}}}} where CAPE stands for the ConvectiveAvailablePotentialEnergy, C A P E s ∗ {\displaystyle CAPE_{s}^{*}} is the CAPE of...
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