Meteorology

Meteorology

A database of terms pertaining to the scientific study of the atmosphere.

Contributors in Meteorology

Meteorology

A rainbow formed when the light source is the moon rather than the sun. Even though the optics of both is the same, the luminance of the lunar rainbow is much lower. As a result of the eye's reduced ...

orographic cyclogenesis

Weather; Meteorology

The synoptic-scale development of an atmospheric cyclonic circulation on the downwind side of a mountain range. The “lee” side is relative to the mean background airflow. Weak development can occur ...

kanat

Weather; Meteorology

A mildly sloping tunnel, with the upper end below the water table of an alluvial aquifer, that is used to collect and transmit water to a lower-elevation surface outlet.

Lenard effect

Weather; Meteorology

The separation of electric charges accompanying the aerodynamic breakup of water drops, first studied systematically by the German physicist P. Lenard (1892). Experiments have shown that the degree ...

large ion

Weather; Meteorology

An ion of relatively large mass and low mobility that is produced by the attachment of a small ion to an Aitken nucleus. Large ions were discovered by P. Langevin and are sometimes referred to as ...

laminar flow

Weather; Meteorology

A flow regime in which fluid motion is smooth and orderly, and in which adjacent layers or laminas slip past each other with little mixing between them. Exchange of material across laminar layers ...

longitudinal rolls

Weather; Meteorology

Atmospheric coherent structures in the form of persistent organized counterrotating roll vortices that are approximately aligned with the mean wind and span the depth of the planetary boundary layer. ...