Final answer:
A wet parcel of air starting at 25ºC will rise and cool until it reaches its dew point and becomes saturated. This occurs when the parcel's temperature intersects with the environmental temperature, likely between 0.5 km and 1.0 km altitude in this scenario.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the altitude to which a wet (saturated) parcel of air will rise, given an initial surface temperature of 25ºC, we need to understand the concept of the lapse rate and the environmental lapse rate.
The environmental lapse rate is given by the sounding readings, which indicate changes in temperature at different altitudes. The lifting condensation level (LCL) is the altitude at which the parcel's temperature will cool down to its dew point and become saturated due to adiabatic cooling.
Looking at the sounding data provided, the temperature profile of the environment initially decreases and then increases and decreases again, which suggests an atmospheric inversion followed by a normal lapse rate.
Since the wet parcel starts at 25ºC and cools at a moist adiabatic lapse rate, we compare this cooling rate with the environmental temperatures at different altitudes to find where it equals the environmental temperature, signaling saturation and cloud formation.
Without exact values for the moist adiabatic lapse rate, and assuming standard conditions, a parcel cooling from 25ºC at the surface would reach its dew point at an altitude where the temperature is lower, which is approximately between the 0.5 km and 1.0 km altitudes based on interpolation between 20ºC and 13ºC from the given sounding data, given the temperature at a higher altitude is warmer.