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American Meteorological Society
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 sea for which the input of energy to the waves from the local wind is in balance with the transfer of energy among the different wave components, and with the dissipation of energy by wave breaking. Usually this is taken to mean that the sea state is independent of the distance (fetch) over which the wind blows and the time (duration) for which it has been blowing. Some of the wave components of the energy spectrum may not have their maximum amount of spectral energy in a fully developed sea, as an “overshoot” tends to occur during the process of wave growth.
Industry:Weather
A squally northwesterly wind, cold, humid, and showery, that occurs in the rear of a low pressure area over the English Channel and off the Atlantic coast of France and northern Spain.
Industry:Weather
A sea for which the input of energy to the waves from the local wind is in balance with the transfer of energy among the different wave components, and with the dissipation of energy by wave breaking. Usually this is taken to mean that the sea state is independent of the distance (fetch) over which the wind blows and the time (duration) for which it has been blowing. Some of the wave components of the energy spectrum may not have their maximum amount of spectral energy in a fully developed sea, as an “overshoot” tends to occur during the process of wave growth.
Industry:Weather
In the United Kingdom, a measure of the fitness of the weather at an airport for the safe landing of aircraft. The figure F is computed on the basis of corrected values of visibility and cloud height. Observed visibility is adjusted according to intensity of precipitation; and cloud height is corrected for height of nearby obstructions and cloud amount. Further corrections are applied for the cross- runway component of the wind. The most comparable device widely used in the United States is the sliding scale of ceiling and visibility.
Industry:Weather
In the United Kingdom, a measure of the fitness of the weather at an airport for the safe landing of aircraft. The figure F is computed on the basis of corrected values of visibility and cloud height. Observed visibility is adjusted according to intensity of precipitation; and cloud height is corrected for height of nearby obstructions and cloud amount. Further corrections are applied for the cross- runway component of the wind. The most comparable device widely used in the United States is the sliding scale of ceiling and visibility.
Industry:Weather
A surface of constant geopotential, that is, a surface along which a parcel of air could move without undergoing any changes in its potential energy. Geopotential surfaces almost coincide with surfaces of constant geometric height. Because of the poleward increase of the acceleration of gravity along a surface of constant geometric height, a given geopotential surface has a smaller geometric height over the poles than over the equator. See potential, geopotential height, dynamic height.
Industry:Weather
The temperature at which a liquid solidifies under any given set of conditions. It may or may not be the same as the melting point or the more rigidly defined true freezing point or (for water) ice point. It is not an equilibrium property of a substance; it applies to the liquid phase only. The freezing point is somewhat dependent upon the purity of the liquid; the volume and shape of the liquid mass; the availability of freezing nuclei; and the pressure acting upon the liquid. The freezing point is a colligative property of a solution and becomes proportionately lower with an increasing amount of dissolved matter. Therefore, since natural water almost invariably contains some solutes, its freezing point is found to be slightly below 0°C. For example, bulk samples of normal seawater freeze at about −1. 9°C (28. 6°F).
Industry:Weather
A hot dust-bearing desert wind in Tripolitania (northwestern Libya), similar to the foehn. In Morocco, the analogous gibla is a hot dry wind from between southeast and south. It means “the direction in which one turns,” that is, the traditional direction of Mecca. See chili, khamsin, sirocco, suahili.
Industry:Weather
A wind resulting from cold air running or flowing down a slope, caused by greater air density near the slope than at the same altitude some distance horizontally from the slope. Generally used when cold air is locally generated by a chilled slope surface during periods of weak synoptic or other larger-scale winds, as with katabatic or drainage winds. Slopes can be gentle as found over rolling topography or into river valleys, or steep as on mountains or mountain ranges. Although usually applied to smaller (individual slope) scale flows, the term is occasionally used to include fall winds, or air advected from a cold source region elsewhere, then spilling over and accelerating down a slope, as with a bora or a cold front passage over orography. See downslope wind.
Industry:Weather
A worldwide network of sea level gauges, defined and developed under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Its purpose is to monitor long-term variations in the level of the sea surface globally by reporting the observations to the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level.
Industry:Weather