How do the wet/moist and dry adiabatic lapse rates contribute to desert climate?

The varying environmental lapse rates throughout the earth's atmosphere are of critical importance in meteorology. They are used to determine if the parcel of rising air will rise high enough for its water to condense to form clouds, and, having formed clouds, whether the air will continue to rise and form bigger shower clouds, and whether these clouds will get even bigger and form cumulo-nimbus clouds (thunder clouds). The dry adiabatic lapse rate (DALR) is the negative of the rate at which a rising parcel of unsaturated air, such as a thermal, will change temperature with increasing height. When the air is saturated with water vapour (at its dew point), the moist adiabatic lapse rate (MALR) or saturated adiabatic lapse rate (SALR) applies. It varies strongly with the moisture content, which depends on temperature, and lightly with pressure. large expanses of desert are the result of the worldwide circulation patterns of air, which develop semipermanent belts of high pressure in the ...  more