What is specific humidity and why is it such a useful measure of water vapor content?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Specific humidity expresses the mass of water vapor existing in a given mass of air. Specific humidity has the advantage of not changing as air expands or contracts. When a kilogram of air expands, its mass is unchanged (it is still 1 kg), and the proportion that is water vapor is unchanged. As a result, the specific humidity is unaffected. Likewise, specific humidity is not temperature dependent. If a kilogram of air contains 1 g of water vapor, it still contains 1 g after heating. For this reason, specific humidity is a good indicator for comparing water vapor in the air at different locations whose air temperatures might be different from each other.
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