specific humidity

specific humidity, mass of water vapour in a unit mass of moist air, usually expressed as grams of vapour per kilogram of air, or, in air conditioning, as grains per pound. The specific humidity is an extremely useful quantity in meteorology. For example, the rate of evaporation of water from any surface is directly proportional to the specific humidity difference between the surface and the adjoining air.

Furthermore, the specific humidity does not vary as the temperature or pressure of a body of air changes, as long as moisture is not added to or taken away from it. (Certain other indices of humidity are sensitive to the pressure and temperature.) This stability of the specific humidity makes it useful as an identifying property of a moving air mass. The specific humidity of saturated air (i.e., that in equilibrium with a vapour source, either water or ice) increases rapidly with increasing temperature.