- 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, ...
A two-channel (6. 5 and 11. 5 μm) scanning radiometer flown on ''Nimbus''''- 4'' through ''-7'' used to provide information on moisture and high-level clouds in the upper troposphere and stratosphere.
Industry:Weather
For a given location, a measure of the long- range effectiveness of temperature (thermal efficiency) in promoting plant growth. Numerically, the T-E index is equal to the sum of the 12 monthly temperature-efficiency ratios (T-E ratio).
Industry:Weather
The indicated airspeed corrected for temperature and altitude. These corrections are approximate.
Industry:Weather
Doppler radar installed during the 1990s by the Federal Aviation Administration at U. S. Airports with high traffic density or susceptibility to wind shear. Radars are located 10–20 km from the airports in order to detect microbursts, gust fronts, and convective storms along arrival and departure paths. The nominal transmitted wavelength of the TDWR is 5. 3 cm (C band) and the nominal circular beamwidth is 0. 5°.
Industry:Weather
The sound emitted by rapidly expanding gases along the channel of a lightning discharge. Some three-fourths of the electrical energy of a lightning discharge is expended, via ion–molecule collisions, in heating the atmospheric gases in and immediately around the luminous channel. In a few tens of microseconds, the channel rises to a local temperature of the order of 10 000°C, with the result that a violent quasi-cylindrical pressure wave is sent out, followed by a succession of rarefactions and compressions induced by the inherent elasticity of the air. These compressions are heard as thunder. Most of the sonic energy results from the return streamers of each individual lightning stroke, but an initial tearing sound is produced by the stepped leader; and the sharp click or crack heard at very close range, just prior to the main crash of thunder, is caused by the ground streamer ascending to meet the stepped leader of the first stroke. Thunder is seldom heard at points farther than 15 miles from the lightning discharge, with 25 miles an approximate upper limit, and 10 miles a fairly typical value of the range of audibility. At such distances, thunder has the characteristic rumbling sound of very low pitch. The pitch is low when heard at large distances only because of the strong attenuation of the high-frequency components of the original sound. The rumbling results chiefly from the varying arrival times of the sound waves emitted by the portions of the sinuous lightning channel that are located at varying distances from the observer, and secondarily from echoing and from the multiplicity of the strokes of a composite flash. See electrometeor.
Industry:Weather
The special case of turbulence in which the scales of the turbulent velocities in two dimensions (often the horizontal plane) are much larger than in the third dimension, and the horizontal eddies can be treated separately from the vertical. In consequence, the equations of geophysical fluid dynamics can be formulated in especially simple and productive forms for applications to atmospheric and oceanic flows. Applications include especially study of large-scale atmospheric and oceanic disturbances, the general circulation, and climate change. See Also two-dimensional eddies.
Industry:Weather
Variations in hydrological characteristics mainly with altitude or latitude.
Industry:Weather
The turbulent perturbations of temperature remaining in a stable boundary layer after all turbulent motions have died out. Also known as the footprints of turbulence in the ocean boundary layer.
Industry:Weather
Very generally, a portion of the earth's surface defined by relatively uniform temperature characteristics, and usually bounded by selected values of some measure of temperature or temperature effect. All of the following may be considered “temperature zones”: A. Supan's 1879 hot belt, temperate belt, and cold cap; W. Köppen's 1936 tropical rainy climates, temperate rainy climates, snow forest climates, and polar climates; C. W. Thornthwaite's 1931 temperature provinces. It is occasionally used for a vertical subdivision of thermal belts in mountainous terrain. See Also mathematical climate, solar climate.
Industry:Weather
The range of wavenumbers where the dissipation of turbulence kinetic energy occurs due to viscosity.
Industry:Weather
