- Industrie: 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 surface current in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea flowing southward along the Chinese coast from Bohai Gulf to Taiwan. It is driven by the northeast monsoon in winter and continues against the southwest monsoon through the summer, strengthened by river runoff from monsoonal rainfall. Taking in most of the waters from the Yangtze River, it contributes greatly to the increased summer transport of the Tsushima Current.
Industry:Weather
A submarine plateau or irregular area adjacent to a continent, with depths greatly exceeding those on the continental shelf, but not as great as those in the deep oceans.
Industry:Weather
A strongly sprouting cumulus species with generally sharp outlines and, sometimes, with a great vertical development; it is characterized by its cauliflower or tower aspect, of large size. Mainly in the Tropics, cumulus congestus may produce abundant precipitation. It may also occur in the form of very high towers, the tops of which are formed of kinds of cloudy puffs that, detaching themselves successively from the main portion of the cloud, are carried away by the wind, then disappear more or less rapidly, sometimes producing virga. Cumulus congestus is the result of the development of cumulus mediocris and, sometimes, of that of altocumulus castellanus or stratocumulus castellanus. Cumulus congestus often transforms into cumulonimbus; this transformation is revealed by the smooth, fibrous, or striated aspect assumed by its upper portion. The species congestus is unique to the genus cumulus.
Industry:Weather
A strong, swift current passing from east to west through the Caribbean Sea. The current is the major pathway for water from the Southern into the Northern Hemisphere in the global ocean conveyor belt. It is also an element of the western boundary current system of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre and thus associated with high speeds and eddy shedding: 0. 2 m s−1 in the Grenada Basin; 0. 5 m s−1 in the Venezuela, Columbia, and Cayman Basins; and 0. 8 m s−1 near Yucatan Strait. Eddies can produce occasional current reversal from westward to eastward in all basins. Most of the water from the Caribbean Current leaves through Yucatan Strait, but a small amount returns eastward from the Caribbean Sea into the Atlantic as the Caribbean Countercurrent.
Industry:Weather
A strong, invigorating southeast wind on the south coast of South Africa. At Cape Town it brings the “tablecloth,” a sheet of hill cloud that covers Table Mountain. See doctor, southeaster.
Industry:Weather
A strong northwest foehn wind descending the New Zealand Alps onto the Canterbury Plains of South Island, New Zealand. The nor'wester (as it is called locally) is responsible for strong, warm, gusty winds that can damage crops, cause uprooting of trees in forests, damage buildings and other structures, and cause soil loss. Its drying action increases the need for irrigation on the Canterbury Plains. It can occur throughout the year but has highest frequency in spring. It generally occurs immediately prior to the passage of a cold front over the South Island. It is responsible for the highest recorded air temperature in New Zealand (42. 4°C at Rangiora on the Canterbury Plains, 7 February 1973).
Industry:Weather
A strong wind (16–22 m s−1 or 35–50 mph) in the Gulf of California, blowing from the north or northwest in the upper part of the Gulf and from the northeast in the lower part.
Industry:Weather
A statistical significance test based on frequency of occurrence; it is applicable both to qualitative attributes and quantitative variables. Among its many uses, the most common are tests of hypothesized probabilities or probability distributions (goodness of fit), statistical dependence or independence (association), and common population (homogeneity). The formula for chi square (χ2) depends upon intended use, but is often expressible as a sum of terms of the type (f − h)2/h where f is an observed frequency and h its hypothetical value.
Industry:Weather
A spurious solution to a finite-difference approximation to a differential equation that is not related to the physical solutions of the differential equation. For instance, the leapfrog differencing scheme can introduce a computational mode.
Industry:Weather
A statically stable layer at the top of the atmospheric boundary layer. Although the word “inversion” implies that temperature increases with height, the word “capping inversion” is used more loosely for any stable layer (potential temperature increasing with height) at the top of the boundary layer. This inversion is a ubiquitous feature of the atmospheric boundary layer, formed because the troposphere is statically stable on the average, and because turbulence homogenizes air within the boundary layer, which by conservation of heat requires that a stable layer form at the top of the boundary layer. This inversion traps surface-induced turbulence and air pollutants below it, and causes the free atmosphere to not “feel” the earth's surface during fair weather (i.e., no drag, free slip, no heat or moisture from the surface, and winds are nearly geostrophic). See lid.
Industry:Weather
