system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 how is it that hot air rises - but the higher you go in elevation, air is increasingly colder?
gpt
The Earth radiates huge amounts of heat that it absorbs from the Sun, so this heats up the air at lower altitudes. Since that air becomes warm, it rises, but that gets it farther away from the heat source (air is pretty bad at absorbing heat directly from sunlight), so it cools down. This is why it gets colder at higher altitudes. As the air cools, it sinks back down, where it gets warm again and repeats the process. This movement up and down is the main engine that drives weather.