Estimation of Mixing Ratio for Saturated Air over Water

The role that water vapor plays in atmospheric phenomena is extremely important. Saturation of moist air at a given temperature and pressure occurs if its mixing ratio is such that the moist air can coexist in a stable condition with an associated condensed phase at the same temperature and pressure. The saturation mixing ratio is useful to calculate the relative humidity which is a ratio, expressed in percent, of the amount of water vapor in the air (actual mixing ratio) compared to the amount of water vapor the air can hold (saturation mixing ratio). In this work, an attempt has been made to develop a simple‐to‐use Arrhenius‐type function to estimate the mixing ratio for saturated air over water as a function of pressure and temperature. Estimations have been found to be in excellent agreement with the data reported in the literature, with the average absolute deviation being around 0.4 %.