Atmospheric thermodynamics is the study of
heat to work transformations (and the reverse) in the earth's atmospheric system
in relation to weather or climate. Following the fundamental laws of
classical thermodynamics, atmospheric thermodynamics studies such phenomena as properties of moist air, formation of clouds, atmospheric convection, boundary layer meteorology, and vertical stabilities in the atmosphere. Atmospheric
thermodynamic diagrams are used as tools in the forecasting of storm development. Atmospheric thermodynamics forms a basis for cloud microphysics and convection
parameterizations in numerical weather models, and is used in many climate considerations, including convective-equilibrium climate models.