- Industria: 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, ...
A day during which the sky is more than 75% covered by opaque clouds for most of the day.
Industry:Weather
A deep rift in a glacier, or in any other form of land ice, caused by its motion.
Industry:Weather
A device designed to measure speed alone or velocity of flowing water. The three most common types of modern current meters are mechanical (rotor and vane), electromagnetic, and acoustic Doppler.
Industry:Weather
A device for airborne or ground-based use that exposes a soot-coated glass slide for an instant to a cloudy airstream. Cloud droplets impact on and leave craters in the soot coating for subsequent measurement of droplet size spectra using a computer-driven image analysis system and calibrations that relate drop size to crater size.
Industry:Weather
A cyclonic mesoscale circulation that forms over the coastal waters of southern California. It is most common in the spring and early summer months but can occur at any time of the year. A Catalina eddy circulation is typically associated with a deepening of the marine layer and an associated improvement in the air quality in the Los Angeles Basin. In many cases the marine layer can deepen above 1 km and allow marine air to spill through gaps in the coastal mountains and reach interior desert regions. Catalina eddies are often observed to develop on the coast downwind of the coastal mountains during a period of offshore flow. Cyclonic vorticity develops over the bight of southern California in response to lowered sea level pressure produced by offshore, downslope flow across the Santa Ynez and San Rafael Mountains. Southeastward displacement and offshore expansion of the cyclonic circulation typically occur later in Catalina eddy events.
Industry:Weather
A device for measuring dewpoint temperature by chilling a mirror until water vapor condenses on it. The onset of condensation is measured by bouncing a light beam off the mirror and recording when the reflection changes from specular to diffuse. The mirror can be cooled and heated by a variety of methods, one of which is thermoelectrically. Electronic circuits continuously monitor the light reflection and adjust the mirror temperature to maintain it at the dewpoint, even while humidity is varying. These devices often have high absolute accuracy and precision, but somewhat slow response.
Industry:Weather
A device for changing the direction of an electric current, especially for changing alternating current into direct current.
Industry:Weather
A dark-looking patch on the surface of a lake or ocean, caused when a gust of wind generates capillary waves on the surface.
Industry:Weather
A current that is nearly in geostrophic balance (pressure gradient balanced by Coriolis term), with a correction for the centrifugal acceleration due to flow along curved flow lines. This correction term becomes important in strong circular eddying motions in which the time for a fluid parcel to flow around the eddy is comparable to a pendulum day.
Industry:Weather
A cumulus cloud that has much greater vertical than horizontal extent. It frequently takes the form of a long “neck” protruding from the tops of a lower cloud mass where a locally strong convection current has penetrated the inversion. The shape results from the penetration into relatively moist air aloft which inhibits evaporation.
Industry:Weather
