- 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 thin but hard layer of sea ice, river ice, or lake ice. Apparently this term is used in at least two ways: 1) for a new encrustation upon old ice; and 2) for a single layer of ice usually found in bays and fjords where freshwater freezes on top of slightly colder seawater. See ice crust.
Industry:Weather
1. A line, on a given reference surface, drawn through all points where a given quantity has the same numerical value. The reference surface can be any coordinate plane functionally related to the given quantity (this includes physically defined surfaces in space). This, therefore, is a very general term. Although isopleth is used in this same broad sense by meteorologists, it has a more restricted meaning when used in most other sciences. See also isotimic line. 2. As sometimes restricted, a line drawn through all geographical points that experience the same frequency of some meteorological event.
Industry:Weather
1. A force in a given coordinate system arising from the inertia of a parcel moving with respect to another coordinate system. For example, the Coriolis acceleration on a parcel moving with respect to a coordinate system fixed in space becomes an inertial force, the Coriolis force, in a coordinate system rotating with the earth. 2. See apparent force.
Industry:Weather
1. A hypothetical atmosphere in which the density is constant with height. The lapse rate of temperature in such an atmosphere is known as the autoconvective lapse rate and is equal to g/R (or approximately 3. 4°C/100 m), where g is the acceleration of gravity and R is the gas constant for air. A homogeneous atmosphere has a finite total thickness that is given by RdTv/g, where Rd is the gas constant for dry air and Tv is the virtual temperature (K) at the surface. For a surface temperature of 273 K, the vertical extent of the homogeneous atmosphere is approximately 8000 m. At the top of such an atmosphere both the pressure and absolute temperature vanish. 2. Same as adiabatic atmosphere.
Industry:Weather
1. A line drawn through geographical points at which a given phase of thunderstorm activity occurred simultaneously. 2. In climatology, a line drawn through geographical points that have the same average number of days with thunder in a given period; a type of isoceraunic line.
Industry:Weather
1. A line, on a given reference surface, drawn through all points where a given quantity has the same numerical value. The reference surface can be any coordinate plane functionally related to the given quantity (this includes physically defined surfaces in space). This, therefore, is a very general term. Although isopleth is used in this same broad sense by meteorologists, it has a more restricted meaning when used in most other sciences. See also isotimic line. 2. As sometimes restricted, a line drawn through all geographical points that experience the same frequency of some meteorological event.
Industry:Weather
1. A force in a given coordinate system arising from the inertia of a parcel moving with respect to another coordinate system. For example, the Coriolis acceleration on a parcel moving with respect to a coordinate system fixed in space becomes an inertial force, the Coriolis force, in a coordinate system rotating with the earth. 2. See apparent force.
Industry:Weather
1. (Contracted from incoming solar radiation. ) In general, solar radiation received at the earth's surface. See terrestrial radiation, direct solar radiation, global radiation, diffuse sky radiation, atmospheric radiation. 2. The amount of direct solar radiation incident upon a unit horizontal surface at a specific level on or above the surface of the earth. Compare solar constant, total solar irradiance.
Industry:Weather
1. A form of energy transferred between systems, existing only in the process of transfer. 2. Same as enthalpy. Heat, used as a noun, is confusing and controversial in its scientific meaning. The differential of heat is considered imperfect in that its value depends on the process applied. In the thermodynamic definitions in this glossary, heat is avoided as a noun or adjective except where required by established use. The process of heating is, however, defined as the net absorption of internal energy by a system.
Industry:Weather
1. The line that circumscribes the earth and connects all points of highest mean annual temperature for their longitudes. The course of the heat equator varies with the arrangement of continents and ocean currents. It does not even approximately parallel the geographic equator, but ranges from about 20°N in Mexico to about 14°S latitude in Brazil. From West Africa to the East Indies, the heat equator lies north of the geographic equator; from New Guinea to 120°W longitude, it lies south of the geographic equator. 2. The approximate latitude of highest mean annual surface temperature (about 10°N).
Industry:Weather
