Title: potential temperature
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - potential temperature
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.P04787
Status: current

Definition
The temperature that a dry air parcel would have if lowered or raised adiabatically to a level of 1000 \(\rm{mbar}\) pressure (or other arbitrary standard pressure).

Related Term
- standard pressure: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/S05921

Source
- PAC, 1990, 62, 2167. 'Glossary of atmospheric chemistry terms (Recommendations 1990)' on page 2207 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199062112167)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04787/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04787/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04787/xml

Citation: Citation: 'potential temperature' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.P04787
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Accessed: 2026-05-08T11:37:47+00:00