Density of air

The density of air or atmospheric density, denoted ρ, is the mass per unit volume of Earth's atmosphere. Air density, like air pressure, decreases with increasing altitude. It also changes with variations in atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity. At 101.325 kPa (abs) and 20 °C (68 °F), air has a density of approximately 1.204 kg/m³ (0.0752 lb/cu ft), according to the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA). At 101.325 kPa (abs) and 15 °C (59 °F), air has a density of approximately 1.225 kg/m³ (0.0765 lb/cu ft), which is about Template:Fract that of water, according to the International Standard Atmosphere (ISA). Pure liquid water is 1,000 kg/m³ (62 lb/cu ft).

Air density is a property used in many branches of science, engineering, and industry, including aeronautics; gravimetric analysis; the air-conditioning industry; atmospheric research and meteorology; agricultural engineering (modeling and tracking of Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Transfer (SVAT) models); and the engineering community that deals with compressed air.

Depending on the measuring instruments used, different sets of equations for the calculation of the density of air can be applied. Air is a mixture of gases and the calculations always simplify, to a greater or lesser extent, the properties of the mixture.

Temperature

Other things being equal, hotter air is less dense than cooler air and will thus rise through cooler air. This can be seen by using the ideal gas law as an approximation.

Dry air

The density of dry air can be calculated using the ideal gas law, expressed as a function of temperature and pressure: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \begin{align} \rho &= \frac{p}{R_\text{specific} T}\\ R_\text{specific} &= \frac{R}{M} = \frac{k_{\rm B}}{m}\\ \rho &= \frac{pM}{RT} = \frac{pm}{k_{\rm B}T}\\ \end{align}}

where:

• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho} , air density (kg/m³)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p} , absolute pressure (Pa)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} , absolute temperature (K)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R} is the gas constant, 8.31446261815324 in J⋅K⁻¹⋅mol⁻¹
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle M} is the molar mass of dry air, approximately 0.0289652 in kg⋅mol⁻¹.
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle k_{\rm B}} is the Boltzmann constant, 1.380649×10⁻²³ in J⋅K⁻¹
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle m} is the molecular mass of dry air, approximately 4.81×10⁻²⁶ in kg.
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_\text{specific}} , the specific gas constant for dry air, which using the values presented above would be approximately 287.0500676 in J⋅kg⁻¹⋅K⁻¹.

Therefore:

• At IUPAC standard temperature and pressure (0 °C and 100 kPa), dry air has a density of approximately 1.2754 kg/m³.
• At 20 °C and 101.325 kPa, dry air has a density of 1.2041 kg/m³.
• At 70 °F and 14.696 psi, dry air has a density of 0.074887 lb/ft³.

The following table illustrates the air density–temperature relationship at 1 atm or 101.325 kPa:

Effect of temperature on properties of air

Celsius tempe­rature θ [°C]	Speed of sound c [m/s]	Density of air ρ [kg/m3]	Characteristic specific acoustic impedance z0 [Pa⋅s/m]
35	351.88	1.1455	403.2
30	349.02	1.1644	406.5
25	346.13	1.1839	409.4
20	343.21	1.2041	413.3
15	340.27	1.2250	416.9
10	337.31	1.2466	420.5
5	334.32	1.2690	424.3
0	331.30	1.2922	428.0
−5	328.25	1.3163	432.1
−10	325.18	1.3413	436.1
−15	322.07	1.3673	440.3
−20	318.94	1.3943	444.6
−25	315.77	1.4224	449.1

Humid air

Further information: Humidity

File:Air density dependence on temperature and relative humidity.svg

Effect of temperature and relative humidity on air density

The addition of water vapor to air (making the air humid) reduces the density of the air, which may at first appear counter-intuitive. This occurs because the molar mass of water vapor (18 g/mol) is less than the molar mass of dry air (around 29 g/mol). For any ideal gas, at a given temperature and pressure, the number of molecules is constant for a particular volume (see Avogadro's Law). So when water molecules (water vapor) are added to a given volume of air, the dry air molecules must decrease by the same number, to keep the pressure or temperature from increasing. Hence the mass per unit volume of the gas (its density) decreases.

The density of humid air may be calculated by treating it as a mixture of ideal gases. In this case, the partial pressure of water vapor is known as the vapor pressure. Using this method, error in the density calculation is less than 0.2% in the range of −10 °C to 50 °C. The density of humid air is found by: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_\text{humid air} = \frac{p_\text{d}}{R_\text{d} T} + \frac{p_\text{v}}{R_\text{v} T} = \frac{p_\text{d}M_\text{d} + p_\text{v}M_\text{v}}{R T} }

where:

• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho_\text{humid air}} , density of the humid air (kg/m³)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{d}} , partial pressure of dry air (Pa)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_\text{d}} , specific gas constant for dry air, 287.058 J/(kg·K)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} , temperature (K)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{v}} , pressure of water vapor (Pa)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R_\text{v}} , specific gas constant for water vapor, 461.495 J/(kg·K)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle M_\text{d}} , molar mass of dry air, 0.0289652 kg/mol
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle M_\text{v}} , molar mass of water vapor, 0.018016 kg/mol
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R} , universal gas constant, 8.31446 J/(K·mol)

The vapor pressure of water may be calculated from the saturation vapor pressure and relative humidity. It is found by: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{v} = \phi p_\text{sat}}

where:

• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{v}} , vapor pressure of water
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \phi} , relative humidity (0.0–1.0)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{sat}} , saturation vapor pressure

The saturation vapor pressure of water at any given temperature is the vapor pressure when relative humidity is 100%. One formula is Tetens' equation from used to find the saturation vapor pressure is: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{sat} = 6.1078 \times 10^{\frac{7.5 T}{T + 237.3}} } where:

• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{sat}} , saturation vapor pressure (hPa)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} , temperature (°C)

See vapor pressure of water for other equations.

The partial pressure of dry air Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{d}} is found considering partial pressure, resulting in: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_\text{d} = p - p_\text{v}} where Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p} simply denotes the observed absolute pressure.

Variation with altitude

Further information: Barometric formula § Density equations

File:StandardAtmosphere.png

Standard atmosphere: p₀ = 101.325 kPa, T₀ = 288.15 K, ρ₀ = 1.225 kg/m³

Troposphere

To calculate the density of air as a function of altitude, one requires additional parameters. For the troposphere, the lowest part (~10 km) of the atmosphere, they are listed below, along with their values according to the International Standard Atmosphere, using for calculation the universal gas constant instead of the air specific constant:

• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p_0} , sea level standard atmospheric pressure, 101325 Pa
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T_0} , sea level standard temperature, 288.15 K
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle g} , earth-surface gravitational acceleration, 9.80665 m/s²
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle L} , temperature lapse rate, 0.0065 K/m
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R} , ideal (universal) gas constant, 8.31446 J/(mol·K)
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle M} , molar mass of dry air, 0.0289652 kg/mol

Temperature at altitude Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle h} meters above sea level is approximated by the following formula (only valid inside the troposphere, no more than ~18 km above Earth's surface (and lower away from Equator)): Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T = T_0 - L h}

The pressure at altitude Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle h} is given by: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p = p_0 \left(1 - \frac{L h}{T_0}\right)^\frac{g M}{R L}}

Density can then be calculated according to a molar form of the ideal gas law: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho = \frac{p M}{R T} = \frac{p M}{R T_0 \left(1 - \frac{Lh}{T_0}\right)} = \frac{p_0 M}{R T_0} \left(1 - \frac{L h}{T_0} \right)^{\frac{g M}{R L} - 1} }

where:

• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle M} , molar mass
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle R} , ideal gas constant
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T} , absolute temperature
• Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle p} , absolute pressure

Note that the density close to the ground is Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\textstyle \rho_0 = \frac{p_0 M}{R T_0}}

It can be easily verified that the hydrostatic equation holds: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \frac{dp}{dh} = -g\rho .}

Exponential approximation

As the temperature varies with height inside the troposphere by less than 25%, Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\textstyle \frac{Lh}{T_0} < 0.25} and one may approximate: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho = \rho_0 e^{\left(\frac{g M}{R L} - 1\right) \ln \left(1 - \frac{L h}{T_0}\right)} \approx \rho_0 e^{-\left(\frac{g M}{R L} - 1\right)\frac{L h}{T_0}} = \rho_0 e^{-\left(\frac{g M h}{R T_0} - \frac{L h}{T_0}\right)} }

Thus: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \rho \approx \rho_0 e^{-h/H_n}}

Which is identical to the isothermal solution, except that H_n, the height scale of the exponential fall for density (as well as for number density n), is not equal to RT₀/gM as one would expect for an isothermal atmosphere, but rather: Failed to parse (SVG with PNG fallback (MathML can be enabled via browser plugin): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \frac{1}{H_n} = \frac{g M}{R T_0} - \frac{L}{T_0} }

Which gives H_n = 10.4 km.

Note that for different gasses, the value of H_n differs, according to the molar mass M: It is 10.9 for nitrogen, 9.2 for oxygen and 6.3 for carbon dioxide. The theoretical value for water vapor is 19.6, but due to vapor condensation the water vapor density dependence is highly variable and is not well approximated by this formula.

The pressure can be approximated by another exponent:

$$p=p_{0}e^{{\frac {gM}{RL}}\ln \left(1-{\frac {Lh}{T_{0}}}\right)}\approx p_{0}e^{-{\frac {gM}{RL}}{\frac {Lh}{T_{0}}}}=p_{0}e^{-{\frac {gMh}{RT_{0}}}}$$

Which is identical to the isothermal solution, with the same height scale H_p = RT₀/gM. Note that the hydrostatic equation no longer holds for the exponential approximation (unless L is neglected).

H_p is 8.4 km, but for different gasses (measuring their partial pressure), it is again different and depends upon molar mass, giving 8.7 for nitrogen, 7.6 for oxygen and 5.6 for carbon dioxide.

Total content

Further note that since g, Earth's gravitational acceleration, is approximately constant with altitude in the atmosphere, the pressure at height h is proportional to the integral of the density in the column above h, and therefore to the mass in the atmosphere above height h. Therefore the mass fraction of the troposphere out of all the atmosphere is given using the approximated formula for p:

$$1-{\frac {p(h=11{\text{ km}})}{p_{0}}}=1-\left({\frac {T(11{\text{ km}})}{T_{0}}}\right)^{\frac {gM}{RL}}\approx 76\%$$

For nitrogen, it is 75%, while for oxygen this is 79%, and for carbon dioxide, 88%.

Tropopause

Higher than the troposphere, at the tropopause, the temperature is approximately constant with altitude (up to ~20 km) and is 220 K. This means that at this layer L = 0 and T = 220 K, so that the exponential drop is faster, with H_TP = 6.3 km for air (6.5 for nitrogen, 5.7 for oxygen and 4.2 for carbon dioxide). Both the pressure and density obey this law, so, denoting the height of the border between the troposphere and the tropopause as U:

$${\begin{aligned}p&=p(U)e^{-{\frac {h-U}{H_{\text{TP}}}}}=p_{0}\left(1-{\frac {LU}{T_{0}}}\right)^{\frac {gM}{RL}}e^{-{\frac {h-U}{H_{\text{TP}}}}}\\\rho &=\rho (U)e^{-{\frac {h-U}{H_{\text{TP}}}}}=\rho _{0}\left(1-{\frac {LU}{T_{0}}}\right)^{{\frac {gM}{RL}}-1}e^{-{\frac {h-U}{H_{\text{TP}}}}}\end{aligned}}$$

See also

• Air
• Atmospheric drag
• Lighter than air
• Density
• Atmosphere of Earth
• International Standard Atmosphere
• U.S. Standard Atmosphere
• NRLMSISE-00

External links

• Conversions of density units ρ by Sengpielaudio
• Air density and density altitude calculations and by Richard Shelquist
• Air density calculations by Sengpielaudio (section under Speed of sound in humid air)
• Air density calculator by Engineering design encyclopedia
• Atmospheric pressure calculator by wolfdynamics
• Air iTools - Air density calculator for mobile by JSyA
• Revised formula for the density of moist air (CIPM-2007) by NIST