Meteorology

Meteorology

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

Industry: Weather

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Meteorology

optical mass

Weather; Meteorology

The vertical integral of the density of absorbers between two altitudes; used mainly in determining the transmission through an absorbing gas. Dimensions are mass per unit area (e.g., kg m −2 ).

optical imaging probe

Weather; Meteorology

An optical particle probe that records the size and shape of the shadow of each particle that intercepts and attenuates the illumination by a laser beam. Of these, shadowing probes differentiate ...

optical hygrometer

Weather; Meteorology

Same as spectral hygrometer; a group of hygrometers based on the spectral attenuation of radiation by specific water vapor absorption lines or bands.

The optical thickness measured vertically above some given altitude. Optical depth is dimensionless and may be used to specify many different radiative characteristics of the atmosphere. See aerosol ...

optical counter

Weather; Meteorology

Device for counting the concentration of particles in air that takes advantage of the light scattering caused by particles. Modern instruments use laser light sources and are able to give information ...

optical air mass

Weather; Meteorology

A measure of the length of the path through the atmosphere to sea level traversed by light rays from a celestial body, expressed as a multiple of the pathlength for a light source at the zenith. It ...

opposition

Weather; Meteorology

In astronomy, the arrangement of the earth, sun, and one of the other planets or the moon, in which the angle subtended at the earth between the sun and the third body, in the plane of the ecliptic, ...