- Industry: 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, ...
Industrial process in which sulfur-containing gases are released and scrubbed from fossil fuel or from exhaust gases. While the removal of sulfur from fuels is difficult and expensive, the SO2 formed in combustion can often be removed easily by washing (scrubbing) with an alkaline liquid.
Industry:Weather
1. An air pollutant identified as potentially harmful, deserving monitoring and careful study. 2. An air pollutant that is controlled by government regulation. In the United States, there are two primary classes of designated pollutants regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency: criteria pollutants and toxic pollutants. For the 188 “toxic” air pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects (such as birth or developmental defects), the regulations control emissions from sources such as industrial factories. See also air toxins.
Industry:Weather
A wave that is chosen as a basis for the design of a structure, for example, an offshore platform or breakwater. A design wave is described in terms of a wave height, wave period, and direction. See extreme value distribution, extreme wave height.
Industry:Weather
Rainfall amount and distribution in space and time, used to determine a design flood or design peak discharge.
Industry:Weather
The flood, observed or synthetic, that is chosen as the basis for the design of a hydraulic structure.
Industry:Weather
1. In general, the process of drying up. 2. In climatology, a prolonged decrease or disappearance of water from a region. This may be due to 1) a decrease of rainfall; 2) a failure to maintain irrigation; or 3) deforestation or overcropping. Compare exsiccation.
Industry:Weather
The transformation of the climate of a region toward enhanced aridity. Desertification can result from a decrease in precipitation, as well as land surface changes such as deforestation or overgrazing.
Industry:Weather
A wind blowing from the desert. It is very dry and usually dusty, very hot in summer but cold in winter, with a large diurnal range of temperature. Well-known examples are the harmattan, khamsin, and simoom. See also brickfielder.
Industry:Weather
A climate type that is characterized by insufficient moisture to support appreciable plant life - that is, a climate of extreme aridity.
Industry:Weather
A region where precipitation is insufficient to support any except xerophilous (drought resistant) vegetation; a region of extreme aridity. See desert climate, trade-wind desert, equatorial dry zone.
Industry:Weather
