- Industry: Weather
- Number of terms: 60695
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The American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of more than 14,000 professionals, ...
The horizontal divergence measured on a constant-pressure surface, that is, expressed in a system of coordinates with pressure as an independent variable.
Industry:Weather
The innermost region of a tropical cyclone, encompassing the eye and the eyewall. In the core, the local Rossby number, the ratio of the swirling wind to the Coriolis parameter times the distance to the circulation center, significantly exceeds unity, so the flow is approximately cyclostrophic.
Industry:Weather
The hydroxyl radical, OH, is responsible for the oxidation of most of the compounds that are released into, or formed in, the atmosphere. It is ubiquitous in the atmosphere, although its mean concentration is about 106cm−3 and the mixing ratio seldom exceeds 1 ppt (1 part in 1012). In the lower atmosphere it is formed by the reaction of excited oxygen atoms O(1D) with water or by the reaction of hydroperoxyl radicals with nitric oxide. In the stratosphere it is involved in ozone-destroying catalytic cycles. The capacity of the atmosphere to clean itself via the occurrence of oxidation reactions (oxidizing capacity) is usually related to the level of OH present.
Industry:Weather
The estimation of unknown intermediate values from known discrete values of a dependent variable. Various methods are available in one dimension for fitting polynomials or other functions to the known points, the elaborateness of the technique used depending on (among other things) the number and accuracy of the known values. The analysis of a weather chart is an interpolation and smoothing in two dimensions. Compare extrapolation.
Industry:Weather
The error in a mercury barometer's index revealed by comparison with a standard instrument; normally a constant. The index is graduated on the assumption that the reading represents the actual difference in level between the upper and lower mercury surfaces.
Industry:Weather
The formation of ice in the air intake channels of jet engines. See aircraft icing.
Industry:Weather
The energy of a system exclusive of its kinetic energy of mass motion and its potential energy arising from external forces. The internal energy of a system of molecules is the sum of their translational kinetic energies, their vibrational (kinetic and potential) and rotational (kinetic) energies, and the total potential energy arising from forces between molecules. An ideal gas is defined as one for which the intermolecular potential energy is zero. The internal energy of such a gas depends only on its temperature.
Industry:Weather
The energy of fluid per weight units; dimensionally expressed as length unit, for example, Newton × meters/Newton = meters.
Industry:Weather
The elevation angle of that point that a given observer regards as the bisector of the arc from his zenith to his horizon; a measure of the apparent degree of flattening of the dome of the sky. Because to almost all persons the sky appears not as a hemispheric dome but rather as a more oblate surface, the half-arc angle designated by most observers is substantially less than 45°, usually falling within the interval 20°–35°. The more remote the landmarks on an observer 's horizon, the smaller in general will be his designated value of the half-arc angle. Also, presence of a cloud deck serves to produce an apparent flattening effect. No fully satisfactory explanation exists to account for the apparent flattening of the sky.
Industry:Weather
The elements fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and astatine (At), which make up the seventh period in the periodic table of the elements. The first four members of the period are present in trace levels in the atmosphere as the result of both natural and anthropogenic activity. The chemistry of chlorine compounds and bromine compounds is particularly important in the catalytic destruction of ozone in the stratosphere and is responsible for the occurrence of the antarctic ozone hole each spring. Because of this role in ozone depletion, the production of chlorinated and brominated organic compounds is being phased out.
Industry:Weather
