Understanding and recognizing temperature inversions
When planning your Engenia® herbicide application this spring, it’s important to be able to identify if a temperature inversion exists and understand why they must be avoided when making an application.
How temperature inversions form
During daytime hours, dry air naturally cools with higher altitude. Solar radiation warms the earth’s surface, and during days with little cloud cover, convection creates winds and gusts that transport air vertically. As sunset nears, the earth’s surface is no longer heated by the sun. As a result, the ground and the air adjacent to the ground begins to cool more rapidly than parts of the overlying atmosphere. Heat from the warmer air is transferred back to the soil, creating a layer of cooler, denser air near the soil surface. This process creates a temperature inversion, where the cool air at ground level has warmer air above it through the very lowest levels of the atmosphere.
Spraying herbicides during an inversion can result in the off-target movement of small droplets as physical drift, which never reach their intended target. This is not to be confused with volatility, which is when a liquid droplet converts to a gas after it has reached its intended target.
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Engenia Herbicide is a U.S. EPA Restricted Use Pesticide. Additional state restrictions may apply.
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About BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division
With a rapidly growing population, the world is increasingly dependent on our ability to develop and maintain sustainable agriculture and healthy environments. Working with farmers, agricultural professionals, pest management experts and others, it is our role to help make this possible. That’s why we invest in a strong R&D pipeline and broad portfolio, including seeds and traits, chemical and biological crop protection, soil management, plant health, pest control and digital farming. With expert teams in the lab, field, office and in production, we connect innovative thinking and down-to-earth action to create real world ideas that work – for farmers, society and the planet. In 2018, our division generated sales of €6.2 billion. For more information, please visit www.agriculture.basf.com or any of our social media channels.
About BASF
BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 20,000 employees in North America and had sales of $19.7 billion in 2018. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.com.
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The approximately 122,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions. BASF generated sales of around €63 billion in 2018. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchange in Frankfurt (BAS) and as American Depositary Receipts (BASFY) in the U.S. Further information at www.basf.com.