[--MAIN HOME--] [--ALL HABYHINTS--] [--FACEBOOK PAGE--] SATURATION VS. ACTUAL MIXING RATIO METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY Students sometimes confuse the saturation mixing ratio with the mixing ratio. The saturation mixing ratio is in relation to the temperature (the maximum amount of water vapor that can be in the air at a certain temperature). The mixing ratio line that passes through the temperature is the saturation mixing ratio on the Skew-T. For that matter, the temperature is also used on the Skew-T to find the saturation vapor pressure. The dewpoint is used to find the actual mixing ratio. For that matter, the dewpoint is also used to find the actual vapor pressure (remember plugging dewpoint into the Clausius-Clapeyron equation yielded the actual vapor pressure). On a Skew-T, the actual mixing ratio is found by the mixing ratio line that passes through the dewpoint on the Skew-T at the pressure level of interest.