The convective available potential energy (CAPE) of a parcel is the work of the buoyancy force on unit mass of it between its LFC and its EL,
and its convective inhibition (CIN) is the same integral, negative, from its starting level to its LFC.
示例
Example 21.20 (The energy in the Norman sounding)
Lift the surface air of Example 21.4. It saturates at , up, and follows a moist adiabat. Below the sounding is itself nearly saturated and the parcel stays a few tenths of a degree colder than its surroundings; then comes the inversion between and , where the temperature rises by in and the parcel finds itself too cold. It becomes warmer than its surroundings only at , above the ground, its LFC, and stays warmer up to its EL at , above sea level, just below the tropopause the sounding reports at . On a fine grid of pressures the areas of the skew-T figure are CAPE and CIN with the temperature, and and with the virtual temperature: the moisture of the parcel adds its own buoyancy. Parcel theory gives .