- Industry: Weather
- Number of terms: 60695
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
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 action of the wind on the sea surface that generates ocean surface waves by the transfer of momentum from the atmosphere to the ocean. This is an extremely complex process and still not fully understood.
Industry:Weather
The action of venting pollutants from the convective boundary layer to the atmosphere above by cumulus clouds that break through the stably stratified entrainment zone at the top of the mixed layer.
Industry:Weather
The amount of water that would be obtained if the snow sample were completely melted. The snow sample must be obtained from a uniform volume, that is, either by melting snow in a calibrated container (e.g., an 8-in. Rain gauge) or determined by weight (e.g., a snow pillow).
Industry:Weather
The ancient Greek name for the west wind, which is generally light and beneficial. On the Tower of the Winds at Athens it is represented by a youth wearing only a light mantle, the skirt of which is filled with flowers.
Industry:Weather
The annual layers of sediment deposited in lakes and fiords by meltwater from glaciers. Each layer consists of two parts deposited at different seasons and differing in color and texture so that the layers can be measured and counted. If the series is complete, the number of layers gives the date on which the ground was vacated by the retreating ice. Varves were discovered by G. De Geer at Lake Ragunda in Sweden in 1905, and have since been found in many other regions. They differ in thickness from year to year. These differences were attributed by de Geer to variations of solar radiation and hence are supposed to be similar in all parts of the world. It was proposed that in this way dates of varve series could be determined even if the upper layers were missing, but this method of dating has been doubted.
Industry:Weather
The apparent height of a layer in the ionosphere, determined from the time required for a radio pulse to travel to the layer and return, assuming that the pulse propagates at the speed of light. Compare scale height.
Industry:Weather
The area of the conduit wetted by water. In other words, this is the area through which the liquid flows.
Industry:Weather
The arrangement of water molecules in the liquid state. Unlike the case of ideal gas (random distribution) and ideal crystal (perfect order) models, there is no simple way to describe the ideal liquid water structure. It is known that the structure has short range order (similar to ice) but no long range order (similar to a gas), as shown by x- ray diffraction studies. Several competing models exist that attempt to explain the observed properties of water. Examples include the quasi-crystalline model, which assumes that water consists of broken-down pieces of ice; the clathrate model, which suggests that water resembles the clathrate structure of gas hydrates; and the bend-bond model, which suggests that the bonds are bent to various degrees. Other models also exist. Water has several properties of direct meteorological interest (e.g., maximum density at +4°C; maximum visible refractive index at +1°C; maximum thermal capacity at +35°C; large static dielectric constant (80) and its frequency variation) with which such models need to be consistent.
Industry:Weather
The assemblage of buildings, trees, and other objects composing a town or city and the spaces between them. The concept is roughly analogous to that of a vegetative canopy except that the built part is open to the sky and has no stem or trunk zone. Together with the air layer beneath rooftop and treetop level, it forms the urban canopy layer.
Industry:Weather
The atmospheric shell extending from the top of the mesosphere to outer space. It is a region of more or less steadily increasing temperature with height, starting at roughly 100 km. The thermosphere includes, therefore, the exosphere and most of the ionosphere.
Industry:Weather
