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Name: Unknown
Status: student
Age: 12
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 3/4/2004
Question:
How does color affect the dew point?

Replies:
Color does not affect the dew point temperature.

The dew point temperature is the temperature to which the air would have to be cooled, at constant atmospheric pressure, for the air to become saturated.

David R. Cook
Atmospheric Research Section
Environmental Research Division
Argonne National Laboratory

Dear student-

"color" in determining the dew point. The dew point is a measure of the amount of moisture in the air, specifically, the temperature to which the air must be cooled to reach saturation.

Color can affect the rate at which an object cools, and indirectly cools air in contact with it. So it is possible under controlled conditions that a black object might have dew form on it quicker than a white object would. In reality the difference would be negligible.

Wendell Bechtold, meteorologist
Forecaster, National Weather Service
Weather Forecast Office, St. Louis, MO

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