lapse rate is how many temperatures do the down as you go up in height by meter or kilometer or whatever
there are many cool and good lapse rates like, dry adiabatic lapse rate, moist adiabatic lapse rate, superadiabatic lapse rate, autoconvective lapse rate, etc
dry adiabatic lapse rates are common when the air is unsaturated and well mixed, which occurs in the boundary layer approximately from the surface to 1 km. when the atmosphere is well mixed, the properties are about the same throughout (other than temperature of course, cause it is decreasing at like 9.8 K/km). air parcels like to go the up when this happens, but not necessarily
moist adiabatic lapse rates happen higher in the atmosphere when the air is saturated, so that the latent heat of the condensation of water into clouds or rain will warm the parcel as it rises, offsetting some of the natural cooling from adiabatic expansion, so the lapse rate will be more like 6 K/km, except this changes depending on the specific properties of the air parcel
superadiabatic lapse rates are cute because they are FASTER than 9.8 K/km and result in lots of instability, and they are very common really near the ground on hot days, but don't tend to occur lots throughout the atmosphere, that would probably be bad. superadiabatic lapse rates are useful to dust friends
autoconvective lapse rates occur when the atmosphere is constant density with height, which occurs very very near the ground from the same surface heating as the superadiabatic lapse rates but this one's like 34.2 K/km, and it's like super unstable cause that means any small perturbation in density will cause a parcel to rise or sink and it happens basically instantaneously (hence,,__ autoconvective). constant density layers (or layers increasing in density with height actually) also cause refraction of light and therefore m i r a g e s
science :clap:
