[--MAIN HOME--] [--ALL HABYHINTS--] [--FACEBOOK PAGE--] RADIATIONAL COOLING INVERSION METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY At night, the ground emits longwave radiation while not absorbing solar shortwave radiation. This causes a cooling of the Earth’s surface. The Earth’s surface in turn cools the air just above it. This process is most intense when there are clear skies and light wind. The diagram below shows characteristics of the radiational cooling inversion. The inversion layer is shallow and the temperature warms rapidly with height above the ground surface. These situations can cause low temperatures to be colder than expected at the surface. It can also result in a very rapid warm up when the sun comes up since, along with the solar warming, the convective turbulence will pick up causing the much warmer air aloft to mix out the shallow cold air at the surface.