The term stability comes up often in meteorology and aircraft performance. Within the realm of meteorology, the term stability refers to a temperature profile that IS NOT conducive to storm development and instability refers to a temperature profile that IS conducive to thunderstorm development.
Examples of stable layers are inversions and isothermal layers. Unstable layers can be generated by strong solar heating of the ground surface, cooling aloft and low-level warm air advection. Atmospheric stability and instability are important topics in meteorology given their importance in forecasting storms. Although stability will be discussed in great detail in a future lesson, a brief introduction to the concept of stability is beneficial prior to studying meteorological stability.