- Industry: Weather
- Number of terms: 60695
- Number of blossaries: 0
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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 columnar ice crystal with hexagonal cross section and having aspect ratio (diameter to length) as much as 10 to 1. The column may be either solid or hollow with ends plane, pyramidal, truncated, or hollow. Pyramids and combinations of columns are included in this class. It is one of the common ice crystals found in cirrus clouds.
Industry:Weather
A common type of retroreflector, that is, a reflector that returns a ray exactly parallel to the incident ray. It is formed by intersecting three mutually perpendicular planes, with the center point of the reflector located at the mutual point of intersection, thus providing a target of eight right-angle corners. If the reflector can only be seen from one side, that one side is all that needs to be built. When the look direction has a very limited angle, only one-eighth of the structure is commonly built. The material used depends on the wavelength of radiation to be reflected.
Industry:Weather
A cold low that has grown out of a trough and become displaced out of the basic westerly current and lies equatorward of this current. See cutting-off process, cut-off high, cold pool.
Industry:Weather
A colloquial term in western Australia for a squall, associated with thunder, on the northwest coast in summer.
Industry:Weather
A cold air mass, considered as a three-dimensional entity. The isentropic surfaces bounding the cold air mass suggest the shape of a dome.
Industry:Weather
A coaxial optical system used to transmit and/or collect optical energy. The concave primary mirror's surface is parabolic in shape and has a central hole into which light passes to or from a smaller, convex secondary mirror with a hyperbolic surface. The focus of the optical system is behind the hole in the primary mirror when collimated light illuminates the primary mirror.
Industry:Weather
A cloud system that resembles the comma punctuation mark. The formation has a head and a tail and an upstream edge shaped like an “S. ” The comma shape results from differential rotation of the cloud border, and is further influenced by adjacent upward and downward vertical motions. Comma patterns vary in size from small convective complexes to large storm systems.
Industry:Weather
A cloud that owes its vertical development, and possibly its origin, to convection.
Industry:Weather
A cloud-observing guide showing photographs of typical cloud formations with corresponding cloud symbols.
Industry:Weather
A cloud species, unique to the genus cumulus, of moderate vertical development, the upper protuberances or sproutings of which are not very marked; it may have a small cauliflower aspect. This cloud does not give any precipitation, but frequently develops into cumulus congestus and cumulonimbus.
Industry:Weather
