- 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 cloud that forms in the cold air mass below the elevation of the frontal zone. Such clouds can be associated with either a warm front or a cold front.
Industry:Weather
A cloud species unique to the genus cirrus. See cirrus spissatus, cloud classification.
Industry:Weather
A cloud seeding device in which the cloud seeding agent is first vaporized at a high temperature and then condensed as an aerosol as the vapor cools. Flares have been made for producing ice forming or hygroscopic seeding materials. Typical flares burn for 20 seconds to several minutes, and release 10–100 g of seeding material. Airborne flares are usually mounted in external racks on cloud seeding aircraft. Large flares are burned upstream or within clouds; smaller flares may be ignited and dropped through clouds.
Industry:Weather
A chemical reaction that involves either the absorption or emission of radiation. The absorption of an ultraviolet photon often provides the energy required to break chemical bonds and initiate a reaction sequence. Examples of photochemical reactions are the photolysis of nitrogen dioxide, NO<sub>2</sub> → NO + O, or ozone, O<sub>3</sub> → O<sub>2</sub> + O. The latter reaction leads to the initiation of chain reactions that cause the breakdown of hydrocarbons and other pollutants in the troposphere. See'' also'' photolysis, photodecomposition.
Industry:Weather
A cloud composed of supercooled liquid water drops. The importance of such clouds lies in their unstable composition, since natural or artificial addition of ice crystals or other ice nuclei will initiate the rapid phase change to a mixed cloud or to an ice crystal cloud as described by the Bergeron–Findeisen theory. This type of cloud constitutes the principal source of aircraft icing.
Industry:Weather
A closed circulation system within a larger oceanic circulation, in which water is returned to its place of departure through a much shorter route than by following the main circulation path.
Industry:Weather
A climate model in which the statistical behavior of synoptic-scale dynamical processes is represented parametrically. In contrast to general circulation models, statistical–dynamical models offer computational advantages, but the parameterizations adopted in these models can only roughly approximate the effects of synoptic-scale eddies.
Industry:Weather
A classification scheme for hurricane intensity based on the maximum surface wind speed and the type and extent of damage done by the storm. The wind speed categories are as follows: 1) 33–42 m s<sup>−1</sup> (65–82 knots); 2) 43–49 m s<sup>−1</sup> (83– 95 knots); 3) 50–58 m s<sup>−1</sup> (96–113 knots); 4) 59–69 m s<sup>−1</sup> (114–134 knots); and 5) 70 m s<sup>−1</sup> (135 knots) and higher. These categories are used routinely by weather forecasters in North America to characterize the intensity of hurricanes for the public.
Industry:Weather
A circulating fluid system in which the circulation in a vertical plane is thermally indirect, that is, cooler air rises relative to warmer air.
Industry:Weather
A chemical that is easily dissociated by the absorption of light, usually in the visible or ultraviolet region. An example of a photolabile species is nitrous acid, HONO, which has a very short lifetime in sunlight.
Industry:Weather
