Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Bangalore

On calm clear nights a minimum in air temperature can occur just above the ground at heights of order 0.5m or less. This is contrary to the conventional belief that ground is the point of minimum. This feature is paradoxical as an apparent unstable layer (the height below the point of minimum) sustains itself for several hours. This was first reported from India by Ramdas and his coworkers in 1932 and was disbelieved initially and attributed to flawed thermometers. We trace its history, acceptance and present a mathematical model in the form of a PDE that simulates this phenomenon.